Fallout 3:Tormented steel
by RedViking96
Summary: Two years after the Enclaves defeat at adams air force base The Lone Wanderer has disappeared and the wasteland is in need of him yet again but when he is found will he be willing to help at all? M for language and gore and now with lemon. ON HIATUS UNTIL FEATHER NOTICE
1. Bar fight

**DISCLAIMER****: yes we all know that sadly I don't own fallout 3 or any of its concepts/characters and that if I don't say all this that the government will come and burn me alive unpleasant barbequing aside I do clam this sub plot.  
>Content warning: I do hope you took note of the M ratting if you are under the age of 18 then please don't P.M me gabbing on about how I scared you for life or how your elders found you reading this and gave you an ear full.<br>**_**Authors note: hello welcome one and all this little fanfic will like most of my work be a bit off of the well beaten plot track and in advance for the fallout extremist's YES I WILL BE TAKING A FEW LIBBERTYS WITH THE IN-GAME PERKS AND THE TIME LINE…. All that aside read, rate, review and most importantly enjoy.**_

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><p>Two years after the enclave's defeat.<br>Rivet city, it may not of been the most glamorous of settlements in the capital wasteland but the old ship had a soul to it, even here in the quiet of the Muddy rudder you could hear her groaning and creaking, not the stressed screeching of metal mind you but the gentle swaying of a benevolent titan.  
>The hooded man thought to himself as he filled his shot glass with whiskey, and downed the amber liquid in a vain attempt to yet again silence the ghosts of times best forgotten.<br>By the time the man had emptied half of the bottle, the thought occurred to him that he still barely felt tipsy.  
>He was in the process of pouring himself another glass when the door slammed open.<br>Scowling at the sudden noise, he did his best to ignore the newcomers but the clink of metallic boots caught his attention, he ran the sound through his mind again quickly, not heavy enough to be power armour so not brotherhood, guards don't wear metal, to over confident and stompey to be traders or waste landers leaving one thing, mercs his hand twitching towards his gun, he looked upwards, and counted three of them all sporting a white eagle talon on their armour.

Great, not just mercs but Talon compony, the hooded figure knew better then to make for the door, someone leaving in a hurry the moment after mercenary's came in would catch the mercs attention, so he sat still and observed them from his dark corner and put getting drunk on a back burner, he put the whiskey down but not out of reach it was amazing how many people reacted badly to being hit over the head with a bottle full of liquid that burns like a pack of glowing ones when it gets into an open wound.  
>He racked his mind for all that he knew about talon mercs and recalled that they always had an older merc in their teams, as to watch over the green and stupid ones.<br>The man inspected them and found the veteran easily; he had greying hair, a grizzled excerption like he'd been munching on rad roach meat for the like week, a tri beam laser slung over his back, but most importantly unlike the rest of his motely band he paused to look around at everyone in the bar which was rather empty for a Sunday at six PM.

As Carmichael's eyes scanned the rudders patrons his gaze caught on the hooded man in the darkest part of the room, dressed in a dark navy blue trench coat and matching hood which kept his face in shadows, the mercenaries gut told him it may be better if he got the hell out of dodge and left but excited green horns were dangerous if left alone for too long so he pushed the feeling back down and followed his team in but he kept the man in his line of sight at all times, the vibe he gave off felt like it was a death claw sitting in corner and he was the only one unlucky enough to see it.

The hooded man kept watching, waiting and when the older mercenary's eyes lingered upon him he kept the older man gaze, with unblinking eyes, not that the merc could see it beneath the hood, but he noted with small amount of satisfaction that afterwards the veteran refused to be in a position where his back was facing him, the satisfaction however was tainted with annoyance, he may have won the silent pissing match but in doing so he was noticed and he just wanted to be left alone.  
>His thoughts were again interrupted when a merc who he decided to call sniffles on account of his broken nose leaking shouted at Belle<br>"WOMAN bring me and these victorious bustards a drink, we just came out of DC unscathed not one of those green an yella fucks in sight guess them power armoured sons of bitchs are doing something right ay" sniffles hollered slapping the third merc on the back, who the man decided to called shorty.  
>The hooded man almost burst out laughing by going through DC they meant skirting around the edge and by "power armoured sons of bitchs" he meant guys with big guns far in the distance which they had to take extra care to avoid, Belle simply replied<br>"I don't give two shits if you've been too raven rock and back you cough up the caps before you get anything sunshine" at this sniffles sat blinking dumbfounded  
>Again the man had to beat down the urge to laugh and was slightly unsuccessful this time when a snort of amusement escaped his lips and in the silence of the ship, Sniffles heard it whipping around his beady eyes sought out the source of the noise, his eyes frantic search came to a rest on the hooded man, standing up Sniffles tromped over to that man trying to act menacing the hooded man was unimpressed.<br>"You wants to start something bitch ay, I've walked through DC, I've killed super mutants, what have you done huh why you think that you can laugh at me!" sniffles raved making big motions with his arms, the man didn't care he replied by raising his hands and gave sniffles a few meagre claps then picking up his whiskey he took a small drink ignoring the merc, waiting to see how far he would take it.

He may not have liked Brilt he was a snot nosed narcissist that loved to puff up his chest and tell everyone what a manly man he was but it was Carmichael's job to keep the green horns alive but at the same time he was meant to teach them how to survive which meant putting them in dangerous situations, but when the idiot took offence at someone snorting at him usually Carmichael would have left the new blood to his own devices and would step in before someone was killed but now with this man he wanted to pull the fool back and apologise before running far away the feeling put him on edge he was about to distract Brilt with a drink or something shiny when a sound coming from the door had his heart beating a hundred miles an hour in his chest.

Sniffles was fuming at being discarded so easily and on the verge of throwing punches he could see it, his grip on the bottle tightened slightly waiting his eyes went over to the veteran wondering what he would do when the man crooked his head slightly and stiffened wondering what had spooked him the hooded man listened carefully and knew what had gotten his attention.  
>The rhythmic thumps of heavy armoured foot falls, the clinking of steel and the subtle hiss of air filters, power armour, brotherhood knights, he needed to leave the rudder was getting too crowded.<br>So caught up in his thoughts that he barely dodged the swing that Sniffle threw his way, darting his head to side he sprang upwards throwing the whiskey at Shorty, who was moving to join in, and grabbed Sniffles still out stretched forearm with his left hand, and slammed his right hand into the outer side of the elbow joint which resisted for a fraction of a second before snapping with a sickening crunch, Sniffles began to scream when the hooded man still holding his now useless arm wrenched him forwards and smashed his head into the wall silencing him for the moment he then turned to shorty who had finished digging glass out of his face and had pulled out a combat knife, he began to circle Shorty, waiting, the little man made the first move charging with a string of curses and an insane grin, rushing forward at the last moment the man took the worst of the knife slash on his arm, Shorty's grin diminished when he noted that the knife had collided with something hard under the coat and washed away completely when the man's fist cracked into his face, taking advantage of the smaller man being disorientated he grabbed his wrist and gave it a savage twist wrenching the knife out of his hand, the man then still holding Shorty by the wrist flipped him onto the ground, keeping shorty immobile the man grabbed the knife and waved it in front of his face getting his attention, he then jammed the knife into the little man's dominant hand taking care to sever and damage the tendons and fine muscles to the point where reconstruction would be impossible, he then rise and left Shorty to howl in pain clutching his crippled right hand.  
>He walked over to the veteran who had turned slightly pale and whispered to in the man's ear<br>"leash your dog's better" with that said, the man walked over to the bar tossing Belle some caps to pay for the whiskey and paused for a moment and placed some more caps onto the bar to pay for the damages, then making his way to the door he heard Belle callout behind him,  
>"Vin you FUCKING WARN ME the next time you plan to do that shit in my bar" He could hear the anger in her voice so he turned again and pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket and threw them to her, not waiting to see if she caught them he turned yet again to see two brotherhood of steel knights blocking the door after a few tense moments they moved out of his way.<p>

With the night taking such an unexpected turn the hooded man made his way to the weatherly hotel on the upper deck he saw that bloody robot at the front desk and no sign of Vera, he let out an annoyed grunt and trudged over to the mister gusty unit, which sensing his presence floated over and in a chipper voice said  
>"Master Vincent what service may I offer to you?" the robot asked gritting his teeth and pushing down his personal hatred of its voice said<p>

"Key" it quickly hovered over to the desk opened the safe and retrieved his room key he snatched the key as fast as he could and left before he had to listen to the droid any longer and swiftly made it to his room, taking a moment to see if anyone was in the hallway, he unlocked the door and made his way inside taking care not to step on the trip wire he had set up on the floor which connected to the grenade tapped to the roof, walking over to the supply pack which he kept in case he needed to leave rivet city in a hurry, he checked the continence to ensure everything was there six bottles of aqua pura check, two can of pork and beans check, packet Salisbury steak check ten vials of med-x check roll of bandages check, ten stim pack's check, 10mm sub machine gun check, grenades check, ammo check, satisfied that it hadn't been tampered with he moved away and paced the room waiting to see if the brotherhood knights had picked up on him.

By midnight Vincent decided it was safe to rest for an hour hoping that if the Brotherhood came knocking that they did come knocking that the do in fact knock or else they would get a face full of shrapnel, he didn't like sleeping that's when the dreams came to torrent him, faces of all the people that he had killed when he had been know as the lone wanderer.

Once again Sarah Lyons found herself in the citadel's archives reading through mission reports, looking for any hint, or sign of the lone wanderer, ever since he had vanished a year ago things had been slowly becoming worse in the brotherhood, the super mutants had been pushing harder ever since the wanderer had stopped his regular culling of mutants in vault 87, it seemed that he was the only one capable of surviving through the irradiated corridors of the vault and killing the green freaks, and as if that wasn't the worst of it raiders had been hitting water caravans more then ever, since the wanderer had put the fear of god into them and with meany settlements like Megaton, Big town, the new brotherhood base at Raven Rock, and even Rivet city for steels sake suffer water shortages, they were all turning to the Brotherhood of steel to fix it and they simpely couldn't spare any man from patrols in DC.  
>Sarah racked her hands through her blond hair in frustration, when the wanderer was here her and her father couldn't admit how much they had needed him and now that he was gone everything had gone to hell, defeated she put her head in her gloved hands and murmured<br>"Damn it Vincent where are you?"

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><p>Okay so what did you think please tell me bounce some ideas off me and I will do my best to incorporate them into the story until next time :)<p> 


	2. Discovery

Tormented Steel chp 2  
><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own fallout 3 or any of its conceptscharacters I do however own this sub plot and all character unique to it.  
>Content warning: if you are under 18 then please keep it to yourself and if mummy or daddy have a go at you for reading this then do the nice thing and don't whine about it. <strong>_**  
>Authors note: hello my readers since the first chapter was well short as penance I'm going to make the rest longer so that aside read, rate, review and enjoy.<br>p.s people I've changed some tiny things to fit the rest of the story nothing major but at the same time very important.**_

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><p>"Sentinel Lyons" the words echoed in her mind, she didn't care who it was, she was too tired to find out, how many overlords had been sighted, or how Megaton was thirsty, in her mind they could all go to hell.<br>"SENTANEL LYONS!" the voice yelled next to her causing her to wince and with great effort on her part she lifted her head and opened her eyes to see knight captain Gallows standing next to her in full combat gear.  
>"This had better be good Gallows" she groaned lifting herself off of the archive desk which she had fallen asleep on.<br>"Dawn patrol" he said holding out a laser rifle for her, she took it and checked the micro fusion cell, fully charged Gallows then handed her some more cells and waited silently.  
>"Where's Kodiak wasn't he meant to be with us?" she asked clearing her eyes<br>"Transferred to Raven Rock last night" replied Gallows his often controlled monotone voice laced with annoyance.  
>"WHAT on who's… Gallows give me a moment I need to have words with my father meet me at the gate in fifteen" she said and Gallows left without sound as Sarah Marched to the Solar which was where her father always went at the beginning of the day.<p>

Elder Owyn Lyons sat in the warm glow of the Solars lights doing his best to relax, he found it soothing to just sit down and let go, since it seemed that more and more of his time was taken up coordinating the brotherhoods dwindling defence.  
>The elder hated to admit it, but when the wanderer was around, he had taken a monumental weight off of their shoulders, by aiding the paladins efforts in the DC ruins, by not only repairing the transmitter for Galaxy news radio, but by also cutting a bloody path through the super mutants seemingly unbreakable lines, and in doing so he had allowing the brotherhood to have a well earned rest the likes of which they had not felt in years, those feats alone had caught the elder's eye, and then he had astounded them all when he had been able to resurrected project purity, as well then putting an end to the Enclave's "president Eden".<br>So when the wanderer had begun to show an interest in his daughter Sarah and she similar emotions towards him the elder had been at first slightly disappointed, that she had not chosen another member of the brotherhood even though technically the wanderer was a knight of Lyons pride but it was in name only, since he had never taken any of the required vow's, but even so Owyn had allowed his soft side to win and left them to do as they wished allowing their affection for each other to grow, which had only made his betrayal that much worse.

When the wanderer had left, Sarah had been devastated, at first she had been fine insisting that they would hear from him soon, but as time rolled on and days turned to weeks and weeks to months she had become more and more frantic, becoming so worried, that she had begun begging her father to send out men to find him.  
>On one occasion, when Scribe Rothchild, had suggested that they should accept that the wanderer was either dead or never coming back, Sarah had leapt across the room and attempted to beat Reginald to a bloody pulp, thankfully knight captain Gallows had torn Sarah off of the scribe kicking and screaming.<br>They were forced to put her into confinement for a week before she returned to normal.  
>After that she never spoke of him again and began to drift away from everyone.<br>Ever since then the elder swore that if he found that man he would personally choke the life from him.

When he heard someone knocking on the door he opened his eyes.  
>"Enter" he said to the door already having a good idea of who was on the other side, and as he had predicted Sarah opened the door and walked in.<br>Swivelling her head to see if there was anyone else present she closed the door behind her as she marched over to her father, stoping and saluting before him.  
>"Elder request to speak freely" she said curtly staying ram rod stiff.<br>"Drop the formalities Sarah I know why you're here" said Owyn leaning forward and mentally bracing himself.  
>"Then you won't mind telling me what the hell you were doing sending Kodiak to Raven rock without telling me?" she fumed crushing any hope the elder had of keeping the convocation polite.<p>

"First I sent him there because there have been sighting's of slaves from the Pitt in that region and Kodiak is the only man In the brotherhood with the misfortune of being raised in that god forsaken place, giving him an insight no one else here has, secondly I didn't tell you because you were fast asleep in the archives and don't think that I was unaware that you have been as such for weeks" finished elder Lyons index fingers massaging his temples, hoping that it was the end of the discussion.

"Oh so you just conveniently forgot the second part of the "chain that Binds", that order should have come through me first" she growled despising that fact that her father had gone behind her back like that, the elder's eyes flew open rage crackling behind them  
>"WE ARE AT WAR IN WAR THERE ARE SACRIFISES AND I REFUSE TO HAVE YOU ACTING LIKE A SPOIELED CHILD BECAUSE OF IT!" Owyn bellowed causing Sarah to wince and take an involuntary step back, as she began to open her mouth to contradict her father he cut her off with a sweep of his hand.<br>"As of this moment I'm taking you off of active duty until you are deemed fit to return, and in your absence paladin Tristan will take command of Lyons pride Dismissed sentinel" he said pointing to the door, hurt deeply Sarah saluted and made her way to the gate to tell Gallows and doing her best not to control the flood behind her eyes.

"NO!" he yelled into the darkness Vincent lunched upright slashing at the air with the trench knife that he slept with.  
>Breathing hard he gathered himself shaking off the remnants of the nightmare.<br>Grunting in frustration he grasped for the bottle of whiskey which he kept on his night stand.  
>His hand touching nothing but air Vincent turned his head and peered over the side of the bed his suspicions were confirmed when he saw the glittering of glass in the dim morning light.<br>Groaning at the thought, of having to go back down to the Muddy rudder, so soon after beating the crap out of those two mercenaries' had him mentally smashing his skull on the ships bulkhead.

Groggily pulling himself out of bed, he had planned on walking over to the closet the retrieve a set of relatively clean cloths, but somewhere along the way he had ended up face down on the floor, feeling like he had just been hit over the head by super mutant with a sledgehammer.  
>He truly loathed hang overs, shakily Vincent, stood up off the floor and instead of going to get dressed like originally planned he slowly made his way over to the bathroom.<br>Entering the dingy little room that consisted of a broken toilet, a sink and a mirror which doubled as a medicine cabinet, reaching over to the sink he twisted the rusted handle and as always the only thing that came out was an angry gargle, adding to his belief that his sink was hunted.  
>Sighing Vincent then opened the cabinet, reviling enough drugs to kill a Brahmin team, ignoring the bottles of buff out and the vials of med-x his hand pulled out an inhaler of jet.<br>Lifting the jet to his mouth Vincent Bit down hard on the mouth piece, breathing deeply as the chemicals exited the inhaler and began their decent to his lungs and eventually his blood stream, dropping the now empty canister, Vincent trudged back to the main room and pulled on a pair of boots, his navy coat as well as a dirty face wrap again taking care to avoid the tripwire he closed and locked the door to his room discarding the keys on the front desk in no mood to put up with that damn robot.

After descending the ships staircase and getting some wary looks from security he opened the door to the Rudder, Glancing around Vincent instantly spotted two knights', sitting on stools in front of the bar, feeling much more alert he looked over the men in power armour, he couldn't tell if they were the same ones from yesterday.  
>After standing there for a few minutes Vincent was still unsure how to proceed on one hand he really didn't want to be seen by the knight's especially if one of them recognised him, damn them for making suits of power armour all look the same, and on the other hand he really needed that booze.<br>Deciding to throw caution to the wind, if the reported him back to the citadel he would just disappear again, If they tried to take him back now he would make sure they didn't live past it, Vincent slowly walked down the steps and over to the far side of the bar, leaning on the steel bench he motioned Belle over, who looked more pissed then normal at the sight of him.

"You've sure got a pair to be showing your face round here so soon after your little argument yesterday" she growled, her eyes glazing over she lowered her voice and added.  
>"You owe me a thousand caps for all the palms in security I had to grease, to down play this, only problem is those two bloody steel suits haven't left since then either" raising his head Vincent nodded and grabbed a whiskey making a mental note that the knight's visor's had clear glass in them and that their eyes had been tracking him from the moment he had set foot in the door.<br>Keeping his pace slow and unrushed Vincent, heard the scraping of stools against the floor behind him, as he progressed through one of the ships empty corridors still hearing the thumps of power armoured boots he turned again, only to stop dead in his tracks.  
>Barring his way forward to the stairs was the imposing form of star paladin Cross, his heart started to beat again when he heard the squeal and clang of the door behind him closing, risking a momentary glance back Vincent saw the two that had been fallowing him.<br>"Sir I respectful ask that you remove head gear and allow us to see your face" said Cross causing him to turn back to her.  
>"Would you tell me what the hell you're doing?" Vincent said deciding to gamble and play the fool.<p>

"Sir just let us confirm your identity and you may go about your business" replied Cross holding her ground damn her for being so bound to her scene of duty.  
>Reaching up to the back of his neck, Vincent began to undo the face wrap letting it hang loosely in his hand as it fell away, he turned to cross.<br>"It's not him damn" she murmured holding up a wrinkled photo in a loader voice she said.  
>"You may go sir thank you for your time" she said passing him<br>Vincent was about to put the cloth back on when a spasm travelled down his left arm, a phantom memory of when a Yao guai had clipped his arm damaging some of the nerves, curse this bloody thing if it wouldn't work properly, the jerking made him drop the wrap and clamp his other hand on the now stable arm, at the sound of his grunt of annoyance Cross turned around, and being the good soul that she was she marched back and picked the bandana for him, and was about to give it to him, when reaching out with his arm now that he had control of it again, the pain subsiding he grasped the cloth the movement causing the sleave on his left arm to fall back reviling a still white ring where a pip boy had once been.  
>Recognising the tan line she looked up again in shock.<br>"Facial surgery" she whispered she opened her mouth again to shout something to her comrades, but the star paladin was cut off when Vicente's hand snaked around her neck and roughly pulled her behind him and sent her head crashing into the wall.  
>One down two to go not letting them have any time to react Vincent tossed the rag into ones face and tackled the other sending them both crashing to the ground his hands wrapping around one of the intake hose's he yanked it free, causing the pressurised helmet to fog and hiss the sudden change sucking the wind from the knight, rolling of the flailing man, Vincent turned to his final advisory, who had finally freed himself from the damp cloth and was now facing him with his laser pistol drawn.<br>"Do the smart thing runaway" Vincent said palming a switch blade which he had freed from his coat, not giving the man time to respond he threw the knife towards the man's eyes who instinctively put up his hands to protect them, but not before letting off a lucky shot with the laser which grazed Vincent's arm, ignoring the pain and rushing forward Vincent swept the feet out from beneath the man and bolted to the door, hearing a stream of curses behind him he slammed the door shut and threw the lock into place just as something heavy collided into the other side, sweeping a brown lock of hair from his eyes he began jogging towards his room.  
>Vincent knew that security would find them soon, and with any luck Cross would be smart and report back to the Citadel to tell everyone who she had found hiding right next door.<p>

He looked into the grimy mirror, he didn't see a blue eyed twenty four year old staring back he saw a man who had seen more than anyone should ever see.  
>He inspected his face noting the scars that dotted it but the one that stood out the most was one that came down from his inner left eye brow down, to the right side of his chin, he'd gotten that in a knife fight with a raider in Ever green mills, the other largest one being a scar which had once been invisible under his dark brown shoulder length hair, was now visible since he had cut so that it was only a few centre meters long giving it a pre-war Sergeant look, satisfied with how he looked he concealed his face behind a hood which had some cloth pulled down over the front keeping his face in draped in shadows, after all he wanted to look good for his guests and since paladin cross never came kicking down the door Vincent was confident that she had returned to the Citadel and so he waited for his past to come for him in all her blond fury.<p>

Sarah couldn't stop pacing, she was still angry at her father yes but she wasn't even wearing a hole in the floor because paladin Tristan had made the most idiotic mistake she could think of, he had paired Gallows and Dusk together for patrol.  
>Yes they may have had complementing skill sets but it was foolish because Dusk hated Gallows and it was never good to put two people who couldn't trust or like each other on patrol together without a third to act as chaperone, and if it were under different circumstances and Glade saw her like this he would never let her live it down "Big steely Sarah Lyons worried for her cubs", the thought had lightened her mood but what had put her on edge was when a runner had arrived with news of a possibly sighting of the lone wanderer in Rivet city.<br>Mostly such sightings were meet with scepticism what had set this case apart was that the man that had came with the runner, a mercenary named Carmichael had described in great detail how a hooded man had almost killed two of the men in his charge with an unarmed fighting style that matched Vincent's perfectly and how that same man had seemed to want to be gone the moment that Brotherhood knights had arrived.  
>After deliberating for half an hour they had sent star paladin Cross to investigate she had not yet returned, while this was not unexpected the longer she waited the more wound up she became at the thought of Vincent and began pacing again trying to work out how she felt about possibly seeing him again, at first angry he had just left her with no reason, then anxious what if he had changed in all the time that had passed, then back to anger but this time directed inwards Vincent had left end of story this was likely just a wild goose chase and she went back to pacing.<br>For the hundredth time that morning Sarah looked up at the clock in the Den half past midday, she kept waiting by now Cross should have come back to tell them that it was all just a drunken bet or something, but as time trickled on, the likelihood of that became less and less.  
>At that moment star paladin Cross opened the door poking in her head which had a large bruise and a swollen eye, getting up Sarah asked<br>"What happened to you?" the paladin only dropped her head and responded  
>"You are Needed in the council chambers" backing away from the door and moating for Sarah to follow her, and with that simple request her gut twisted, proceeding down the hall after the older woman, Sarah stoped for a moment before entering the circular room she took a deep breath she pushed the doors open.<br>Silently Sarah sat down and her father began the meeting.  
>"Fifteen minutes ago star paladin Cross returned from Rivet city looking into an alleged sighting of Vincent Frost, She has reported that she and two other knight's confronted the man that been suspected of being the lone wanderer and almost allowed him to slip past on account of it seeming that he has had facial reconstruction at some point, if it had not been for the star paladin spotting the distinctive mark on his arm which was most likely left from a pip boy, upon this event the man subdued Cross and the two knights unarmed" said the elder, in the silence you could hear a pin drop, the one who broke the quite was Dusk<br>"If that's the case we should move at once to catch the son of a bich before he has time to get his cowardly ass together and run" she voiced her feeling's on the matter being mirrored by most of the people in the room as a general murmur of agreement broke out among them.  
>"Before we act on that we need to decide on who to send after him, as the state of Cross and her team demonstrates" voiced Glade leaning inwards on the table.<br>"I agree we should send in Lyons pride after the traitor!" shouted scribe Jameson standing up from her seat at this eyes turned to Tristan who said.  
>"No the pride is needed here all of its members have assignments which need to be complied before such a task is attempted" at this people began shouting and demanding that someone be sent when Gallows' voice rang out.<br>"Perhaps we should send Sentinel Lyons" his words cutting off everyone else's and before someone could object he added.  
>"She is the only one who has truly known the wanderer and is the most likely to bring him back Because we all know that attempting to force him to return will result in him disappearing or worse killing his would be captors" as the seconds passed heads slowly turned to the elder to see what he would say, after a moment he scrunched his eyes shut and didn't open them for almost a minute when he did he said.<br>"Sentinel Lyons, do you believe that you can put aside any personal feelings, and bring the lone wanderer, Vincent Frost, back to the citadel?" his eyes betraying his distaste at the thought putting her in a position that could hurt her more.  
>Sarah allowed her mind to process it for a moment, before deciding, she rose out of her seat and announced in a confident voice.<br>"Yes elder I will to the best of my ability try to bring back the accused" her father's eyes darkened a moment before he said.  
>"Then you are returned to active duty and are hereby ordered to bring back the wanderer, this council is dismissed" at that everyone rose, bowed and left all except for head scribe Rothchild who made his way over to his old friend his face contorted with concern.<br>"Are you sure that this is the wisest course of action chances are that he won't come back willingly?" the scribe asked, at this the elders face hardened.  
>"He will either come back willingly or he will be purged from this coil of existence".<p>

Sarah wasn't sure how to precede her mission may have sounded straight forward but in truth the thought of confronting her former lover terrified her, but she had told her father that she could handle it her resolved strengthened Sarah pushed her feelings aside.  
>After some thought, she made her way down to the armoury.<br>"I need a rifle, ammo packs, and a pair of shock grenades" at seeing her face the Requestion officer went over too one of the larger lockers and quickly emerged with the items she asked for, she left with a polite nod to the man and after strapping on the weapons made her way to the gate focusing her mind on a single objective.

Vincent heard her long before she made it to the door, it was around five forty five.  
>at the thundering footsteps he made his way to the door, cut the string the connected to the grenade and sat back down on the bed just as the door was kicked in, and his warrior goddess walked across the threshold.<br>"Honey I'm home" she sneered.

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><p><strong>Yay second chp up well my thinks to everyone who is reading Please put in your reviews and thoughts :)<strong>


	3. Reunion

Fallout 3: Tormented steel chp 3  
>DISCLAIMER: AS YOU SHOULD ALL KNOW I DO NOT OWN FALLOUT 3 OR ANY CONTENT WITHIN IT I DO HOWEVER OWN THE CONCEPT OF VINCENT FROST AND THIS SUB-PLOT<br>_Content warning: under 18's if you don't like what I'm writing leave parents I do not possess mind control powers and it's your fault if your kids reading this when you don't want them to.  
>Author's note: well so far I've gotten positive feedback so I'm going to continue and don't worry things are about to heat up.<br>_

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><p>"I've been wondering how long it would take you to find me" said Vincent to the extremely angry form of Sarah Lyons, who currently had a laser rifle levelled with his head.<p>

"Shut it I'm here to bring you back to the citadel for questioning" she snarled, with iron resolve.  
>A resolve which buckled, when the man before her, in all his hooded glory burst out laughing.<br>As the maniacal laughter, settled into amused giggles he spoke.  
>"What questions, I left, changed my face and didn't want to be found, what is there to ask?" he questioned in-between chuckles.<br>Sarah couldn't believe the nerve he had, to just burst into laughter, in the face of such a serious situation, without entirely meaning to she lowered her weapon and shouted.  
>"YOU LEFT US, you left me, I spent months trying to find you, how could you do that to all of us, or don't you really care about "the good fight" which you rambled on and on about, in the first place?" she laughed "You truly did follow in your father's footsteps, leaving us to rot, just like he left you" she hissed the pain evident in her voice.<br>Almost the instant they left her mouth Sarah, regrated her choice of words, all signs of mirth and good will, had fled Vincent's hooded figure.  
>"I am nothing like that old fool, I may have left without a word, but unlike him, I never intended on coming back" his icy words cut into her and it felt like they had torn open a hole in her chest.<br>She opened her mouth and was about to retort, but he cut her off and stood up from the bed  
>"And also unlike him, I'm alive despite many peoples efforts" he added drifting away for a moment before he came back and continued.<br>"I had my reasons for leaving and don't need to explain myself, not to you and certainly not to the Brotherhood" he finished with a sweep of his hand as he turned away from her.  
>Sarah was at loss for words, she had expected him to feel some guilt over what had happened she had never thought that he would be this cold, the idea almost brought tears to her eyes.<br>Then she remembered her mission and why she was here.  
>"My personal feelings don't matter, I have been ordered to bring you in and that is what I will do, don't make me resort to force" she warned doing her best to hide the pain his words had caused.<br>He spun around at her threat; she knew from experience that the eyes beneath that hood were locked onto her instantly gauging her every movement accounting for what equipment she wore.  
>Which only consisted of her power armour without a helmet, which looking back at it now seemed like a very unwise choice, on her part, the laser rifle in her hands and two stun grandees on her belt as well as assorted ammunition.<br>"I'm assuming that you saw what happened to Cross when she tried that and she had backup with her, what makes you think you'll do any better?" he asked daring her to make the first move, luckily she knew the rules of his little mind games.  
>To wait and let his opponent move first, wait for them to slip to make a mistake then to strike without mercy or remorse as he had once said to her "Life is just a game of chess, all you need to know is what moves to make".<br>Sarah kept her feet planted firmly planted on the ground all she needed to do was be patient so she decided to use the time to try and calm down.

Vincent kept his gaze on her fingers and eyes; they would be the first thing's to move.  
>He was very surprised when she brushed off his barbs and stayed still, he felt like applauding her.<br>She had remembered and retained those weeks he had spent teaching her to be calm and hammering into her skull how to be patient, in even the direst, of situations.  
>Well if that was the case, the only way to play a game where your opponent knows all of your moves is to abandon them completely and do something out of character.<br>So Vincent slowly slid his foot back coiled his muscles and lunched himself towards her his right hand thrown out before him, it crashed into the side of her cheek, whipping her head back, while his other hand latched onto her rifle and kept it pointed away from them both, he didn't want to feel the elders wrath if she died, because if that happened he would never stop hunting him.  
>Taken off guard for a moment Sarah, didn't react however the acute pain that exploded from her inner cheek as her teeth split the soft flesh, drawing blood, coupled with the copper taste snapped her back from the shock and into action.<br>She kicked out with her leg hoping to break his knee, sensing the shift in her centre of gravity Vincent threw his arms forwards pushing her back far enough that her kick came up far beyond his knees and to chest level, catching her leg he savagely twisted it so she landed on her face, not missing a beat, he fell onto her back keeping her leg in one hand and pressing his foreleg into her neck, not enough to cause any real damage but just enough to ensure that her head stayed firmly on the ground.  
>Acting before he had completely immobilised her, Sarah slammed her palm into the floor and rolled onto her back, Vincent, instinctively let go and pushed with his legs away from her and smashed into the wall, he recovered quickly and got to his feet but was unable to stop Sarah's fist from ploughing into his jaw, the impact made darkness swirl around the edges of his vision snapping his hand forward he hit the hollow of her throat sending her stumbling back gasping, shaking his head to clear it, when the darkness disappeared from his vision he growled and descended on Sarah who was still trying to draw in a full breath, Vincent clenched his fist and sent her unconscious with a feral upper cut, his hand went to his mouth and emerged with one of his teeth.<br>"Happy now ya blood thirsty bich?" he asked to her unmoving form, flicking the tooth at her, with that done, he set to the task of removing her weapons and power armour then finding some rope he began to wrap it around her frame.

Sarah came up out of the inky blackness with most of her head throbbing and feeling like she just went toe to toe with a behemoth.  
>Her cheek felt swollen and she could taste the copper of blood in her mouth and went to lean over and spit it out when she felt the tug of bonds over her limbs, panicked she opened her eyes and saw that she was sitting down with her hands tied elaborately in front of her in a manner which looked like a straitjacket made out of ropes.<br>Her legs were tied together and pressed tightly into her chest, experimentally she tugged on the rope, finding that they didn't have any give to them she looked around and saw that she was still in Vincent's room.  
>"Awake are you good, do you want to be civilised now?" asked Vincent appearing from around a corner holding two glasses of what she assumed was whiskey.<br>"I was civil the first time, you jumped me not the other way around" she shot back feeling immensely pissed.  
>"Ah but you were getting ready to, so I just kept you from hurting yourself by attempting such" he replied as if it made perfect scene in his mind.<br>"Why you arrogant stuck up, pig, in a fair fight I would demolish you" she spat.  
>"No you wouldn't and you've known me long enough to know that I don't fight fair, fair is for dead men" he responded sitting down next to her, glaring at him she asked.<br>"Are you going to untie me?" her eyes refusing to meet his, not that she could see them under the hood.  
>"No" he replied mildly taking a sip of the whiskey.<br>"Why the hell not?" she yelled futilely struggling at the bonds.  
>"Because first you would try to claw my eyes out, failing at that you'd run back to the citadel, tell daddy dearest what happened, then he would send a few members of the pride after me I would send them back half dead, then a full contingent would come with orders to kill, see how I'm in a bit of hard place" he explained taking sips of whiskey at regular intervals.<br>"And doing this" she said giving a little thrash to empathise her point. "Will help how?"  
>"It ensures that I have an environment in which I can talk to you without fear of losing any more of my teeth" he jabbed back grumpily downing the rest of the whiskey bottle putting it down he grabbed another full bottle from a cabinet and took a swig.<br>"You never answered my question about why you left." Sarah said trying to relive some of the tension that had settled in the air.  
>"Yes I did, I said that I didn't want to talk about it" he said his grip on the bottle tightening.<br>"Yeah which is code for you do want to talk about it" she shot back wanting to find out more about why he left perhaps to gain some much needed peace of mind.  
>"No it's code for drop it" he said angrily hairline cracks in the bottle forming, refusing to let up Sarah persisted by saying<br>"Don't you think that I deserve a..." she never finished her sentence, as shards of glass exploded across the room proceeded by Vincent storming across to her chair holding a rag which he gagged her with.  
>"You just can't take drop it for an answer can you; in a few hours I'm going to drop you off just outside of the citadel, be a dear remind your father how unwise it would be to send anyone else after me" he said braking out another bottle of whiskey.<p>

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN CAPTUCHERD?" Boomed the elder.  
>"Precisely that sir" responded Gallows calmly.<br>"You mean to tell me that you saw my daughter subdued by that son of a bich and you just left her there?" Owyn growled his eyes fixated on the knight commander.  
>"Yes sir when you ordered me to tail her I did so but I know that the attempt to rescue her would have been useless sir" said Gallows feeling less than happy with the way things turned out himself, the elder sighed and looked up at the man.<br>"You're sure that she was left alive?" he asked.  
>"Yes sir I waited over an hour she's alive and sir before you suggest it I think it would be a bad idea to send in the pride, we don't know what he's capable of" Gallows finished.<br>Second only to Sarah, Gallows, had spent the most time with the wanderer and in that time Gallows had meet the only living man that scared him.  
>Vincent Frost, was a monster that only played at being human, the man had walked into a cave full of death claws and come out of it with only a few scars across his arms and chest even though he told everyone, that he had dropped by Big town and gotten into a fight with super mutants equipped nail boards it wasn't the right kind of mark for that sort of punishment, it had come from claws, and a few weeks later he disappeared again according to one of the scribes down at the Arlington Library in DC she had spotted him going down to the Duchess Gambit before he disappeared for weeks.<br>Gallows knew that they had sent scouts to point lookout no human comes out of a place like that, alive.  
>This only strengthened his suspicion that there was something wrong about him, and not just the sudden mood swings, and his general brutality it was something deeper.<br>But he was different around Sarah, in Rivet city Frost may have beaten her into submission but in his mind it was best for her.  
>He would never hurt her under any other circumstance, with that man she has never been safer in her life, and that was the only thought that gave Gallows, even a shallow sense of Comfort.<br>"I hate how this is turning out, but very well Gallows, the pride will stay here but I want you and Dusk on rotation, watching over Sarah" sighed the elder, he didn't like it but there wasn't much he could do about it, after all he let her go in the first place.  
>"Let's go and give Dusk the good news" he said walking out the door and to the courtyard Gallows in tow.<p>

"Paladin Dusk" A voice called out behind her, she turned to see Gallows and the elder standing behind her, turning back and smiling apologetically to Gunny she walked over to the pair and saluted.  
>"Elder, Gallows, what do you need?" she asked seeing the tension in both men's face's<br>"You have new assignment drop what you're doing now you and the knight captain are going to Rivet city on recon, Gallows, will brief you on the way" the elder explained  
>"INCOMEING" yelled one of the paladins down from the battlements right before a missile engulfed it in an explosion of fire.<br>"Super mutants, get the elder inside!" roared Dusk not that she really needed to since Gallows was half way across the court yard dragging Lyons behind him, then the mini nukes began to fall.

"Get the fuck down!" Sarah yelled as another wave of super mutants charged on their position.  
>"Sarah I think it would be best if we backed the hell up the mutants aren't getting any thinner and we're dropping like flies out here" shouted Glade his voice cutting through the sharp cracks of hunting rifles.<br>"Glade we can't fall back any farther or we'll have our backs to the wall and no way to escape so shut up and keep firing" she yelled back, feeling her suit shudder as a bullet thumped into it.  
>Things had gone from bad to worse, when her small contingent had been pinned down just outside one of the old metros while enroot to the GNR building.<br>They were far outnumbered and she was sure they were about to be overrun when, Sarah saw a figure out of the corner of her eye, emerging from the ancient subway tunnel.  
>Assuming that it was another mutant, she trained the sights of her laser rifle on it, only to be surprised when it turned out to be too short to be one of the hulking abominations, and astounded, when it pulled out a sawed off shotgun, some grandads and a sword, and began cutting though mutants with a deadly proficiency.<br>Within a minute a seemingly hopeless battle had turned into a brazen slaughter, by the time that it was all over the mystery man was covered in green tinged blood and grinning like he had just walked in on his own surprise party, as Sarah made her way towards him, he pulled his navy blue hood over his face.  
>"Who the hell are you?" she demanded.<br>"The man who just saved your asses that's who" he replied scanning their surroundings for any other threats hearing the man's remark Glade piped up.  
>"Screw you, we had the situation well in hand" he growled poking his finger at the man.<br>"_Everywhere I go and never any apparition_" the man breathed.  
>"Don't worry you don't want me here I'll be on my way to GNR" he said to them, turning towards the maze of building that would lead him to the GNR plaza.<br>"Wait" Sarah called out, someone who could almost singlehandedly wipe out a raiding party of super mutants with just a sawed off and a sword had talent and training she wanted to keep her eye on a person like that.  
>The man paused listening, he may have been a lot of things but Vincent was no fool, he knew that in a hell hole like this it was safety in numbers.<br>"Waiting, but if you want to tag along you have to be nice and it's only fair that you tell me your name" the man cooed over his shoulder, he could never resist prodding the high and mighty.  
>"We would be appreciative if you gave us assistance" Sarah ground out, bitting off every word she never enjoyed asking for help especially from some cocky waster.<br>"Good start but I still need a name darling" he said grinning, even as a phase he had coined sprang up in his mind, "don't poke sleeping lions with short sticks", it made him chuckle, which earned him a scowl from one of the power armoured men when the blond women's words brought him back to reality.  
>"You need to impress me before I give you my name" she said putting on a sly smile, the kind that promises of wicked things in the dark of night, that cheeky curve of her lips was all the motivation Vincent needed.<br>"Okay you've got my attention let's go your buddies came come to if they must" he said absently waving in Glades direction who promptly turned to Sarah and whispered.  
>"Sarah I don't think that this is a good idea this guy is bad news" the paladins voice was laced with a mix of anger and caution, Sarah replied by walking over to the mystery man and only now did she notice that the hood pulled down over his face obscured his features completely.<br>"Well let's get moving I only have one rule for your pals they fall behind, they stay behind" he warned his voice cool and calm, Sarah nodded in response and the man began a slow jog toward what may once have been an apartment complex for humans but was now certainly infested with abominations.  
>The man took lead into the foreboding building, his footsteps echoing in the empty halls, the silence was suddenly broken by the wild cries of super mutants as they leapt from their hiding places, mostly armed with rifles and sledge hammers, they weren't the biggest threat, that was handed to the line of brutes on the overhead cat walks all four of them sporting mini guns, the sounds of electrical motors spinning up were heard above the dins of battle.<br>Vincent, smiled he loved a challenge, drawing his weapons, he sprinted towards the back of the room which led to a set of stairs up to the cat walks, cutting the head off of a mutant on the way, recalling that he had human company Vincent spared a quick glace in their direction.  
>"FORM UP" Sarah ordered, sliding into a crouch and emptied a clip into a screaming brute, her squad lined up behind her and they began blasting away at anything that was green and moved.<br>Sarah surveyed her surroundings searching for the hooded man.  
>She found him, pumping a mutant full of buck shot, and then decapitating it, he was methodically slashing his way towards the brutes.<br>Then Sarah, was pulled back to what her team was doing when one of the men behind her screamed as bullets from one of the mini guns ripped through his armour followed by a woman screeching.  
>"COLLIN NO, YOU GREEN SONS OF BICHS" the knight raced out of cover and was swallowed by a hail of dust and bullets.<br>Vincent was a few scant meters away from the brutes before he heard the screams; they hammered a message into him.  
>He needed to end this, reloading his gun, he lined up the sights and fired on the nearest brute, at the feeling of bullets digging into its thick hide, the irradiated freak, turned to see a small object flying towards it, dropping the mini gun the brute caught it, in its large hand turning it experimentally, then it blew up leaving an armless, charred and howling, super mutant, that was then impacted by buck shot, which tore through the wakened flesh, ending the mutant, hearing a mini gun winding up Vincent, darted to the side, as bullets pelted the wall where he had been a few moments ago.<br>Sarah heard the explosion, and suddenly the mini gun fire eased up immensely, apparently the hooded man was still alive and kicking ass, risking a peck around the corner she saw the man almost get cut in half by mini gun fire.  
>Sizing the chance while the brutes were distracted Sarah aimed and fired at the brute closest to the man, the laser lit up the area with sizzling light, the beam burning into the brute arm, forcing it to drop the gun and clutch at the wounded appendage, sighting the easy prey Vincent, closed in on the mutant cutting its head off in one swift motion.<br>With one brute left Sarah rolled out of cover and opened fire on the mutant, singeing it from head to toe, in a blinding display of laser fire.  
>Feeling the need to show off Vincent, leapt from above the mutant and drove his sword straight down the middle, his sword cutting down through the skull and to the collar bone, when the brute stopped twitching, he wrenched the blade from the corpse, drawing in a breath Vincent walked over to the brotherhood squad.<br>"Can we get a move on?" he asked while holstering his shotgun.  
>"Yes we need to get to GNR" said Sarah noting that most her squad was staring at the man, with a mixture of surprise and awe, all of which evaporated when he knelled and removed the holo tags from the fallen knights.<br>"Leave our brothers alone waste lander" roared Glade, at the sight of the man then striping the fallen of ammunition, at the remark the man looked up, Vincent was beginning to weigh the benefits of throwing Glade into a ghoul nest verses a slow burn incinerator.  
>"What good will come of the dead keeping this" he said gesturing to the ammunition.<br>"If I don't take it someone or something else will" his voice calm, studding the paladins movements.  
>Glade shot an accusing look at Sarah.<br>"He's right Better we take it rather than the mutants" Sarah responded turning away.  
>"Yes Sentinel" Glade said gritting his teeth, he may want to kill this man for defiling the bodies of his friends, but Sarah, was his superior officer, and he would follow her orders regardless of how much he didn't want to.<br>Vincent ignoring the paladins, as they argued among themselves over kill count, and inspected his officers sword, the heavy use in the fight with the brutes had dulled it somewhat and the steel had been bent under the stress, frowning Vincent, decided that it was no longer fit for combat he discarded the weapon, replacing it with the machete, that he kept his inner coat pocket, swinging it, he didn't feel quite as comfortable with it as he did with a proper sword the machete, had less reach, he always had to lean further into his strikes with the shorter blade.  
>Sheathing the weapon Vincent diverted his attention to the paladins, who seemed to be waiting for the blond one to tell them what to do.<br>"Hey Blondie, are we going to get a move on or do I have to find this damn three dog myself?" Vincent called, he may have assisted these knights but if they began to slow him down, he would leave them to their own devices.  
>"That's sentinel to you, and we're moving out now" she said moving towards a gap in the crumbling walls, Vincent, wasn't sure what to make of this woman one moment she was flirting with him and the next, she was telling him to shut up and fall in line, it was a nice change of pace.<p>

Sarah took the lead she knew that this stranger may be useful but he didn't play nice with others yet his actions had quite possibly saved the lives of her men twice now, for that she owed him, no matter how much Glade disliked it; they were all indebted to him, Clearing her mind Sarah, moved forward through the maze, of collapsed floors and chipped walls.

Sarah stoped suddenly when they came to an open doorway which lead into an abyss of darkness.  
>She stood transfixed, she didn't like dark places, even as her squad mates switched on their helmet lights, the shadows seemed to press in on her.<br>So caught up in her fear Sarah didn't notice the man beside her until he pulled back his sleeve to revile a pip boy 3000 and flicked a switch which flooded the space with azure light  
>The glow pulled Sarah back from the encroaching dark, with a nod of apparition she hesitantly trudged into the gloom.<br>Pausing more than once to check her crumpled map, of the building, they had to back track twice before the stranger took the lead and herded them along like a shepherd with his flock.  
>After what seemed an eternity she saw daylight ahead, Sarah had to doggedly resist the urge to run towards the comforting rays of light.<p>

Vincent had seen the discomfort that the blond woman showed in the enclosed dark, under most circumstances he wouldn't have cared less, but with her he felt an odd need to comfort her, shaking his head Vincent berried the feeling it was just nerves he needed to focus find his father and find out why he left.  
>Walking out into the street he suddenly became aware that the sounds of battle were close by he quickly confirmed it when he saw a contingent of brotherhood knights defending what he assumed was the GNR building; he raced into the fray with the woman in tow.<br>They charged in to the battle firing on the green freaks that would dare threaten their brothers Sarah, targeted the overlord which had just ripped off someone's head.  
>Pulling her rifles trigger until the barrel of her weapon glowed red, still the mutant refused to go down, the overlord swivelled it's head in her direction and bellowed, rising it's tri beam rifle towards her, it was lining up a shot when it's form was enveloped by laser fire.<br>Sarah looked around and nodded her thanks to the paladin with the smoking Gatling laser who turned to cut down another green monstrosity.

Vincent looked around and smiled as the mutants were blown away, He found a strange glee in putting an end to the mutant's lives, not because of some misplaced scene of honour as if he was freeing them from torment; Vincent just liked killing something more dangerous than wild dogs and raiders.  
>His thoughts were interrupted when the ground began to tremble; Vincent scanned the area for what could have made such a violent shaking pass through the old city's bones.<br>His question was answered when a line of trucks exploded as the biggest mutant he had ever seen burst into the square.  
>One of the knights called out behemoth panic raising his voice an octave, Vincent barely registered it, as an insane grin spread out over his face finely a real challenge.<br>He ducked into cover he may have been crazy but Vincent was no fool he couldn't survive a direct strike from something that big.  
>"GRAB THE FATMAN" cried one of the officers as the hulking monster progressed towards them.<br>His orders were rendered moot when the behemoth crushed the weapon under foot without even noticing, he braced himself he had a plan suicided probably but better than anything else being put forward.  
>"OI GIVE ME SOME COVERING FIRE SEE IF YOU CAN GRAB IT'S ATTENTION" he shouted to the blond woman, who registered what he and said and began braking orders to the paladins.<br>Readying himself Vincent blocked out all the noise listening to his heart beat allowing it's rhythm to enthral him, to let it take him over. Raising to a crescendo he flew out from cover, as the remaining knights unleashed all of their fire power on the beast, sprinting towards it's legs he unsheathed his machete and sliced at the behemoths Achilles tendon, severing it he darted to the other leg blocking out it's roar of pain, bringing up his blade he began to hack at the meaty appendage spiling it's foul smelling blood over the ground.  
>Suddenly the monster swung its giant body around at a speed which at its size seemed impossible, and plucked Vincent up in its massive hand driving the wind out of him; the beast ignored the stinging on its back and squizzed Vincent.<br>Not having much time to think he acted, Vincent wildly dove into his inner pocket gasped as the behemoths grip tightened and pain shot up his sides his hand spastically touched his salvation he tore the round object from the confines of the coat and hammered the trigger down as a cry was wrenched from him the mutant roared in triumph spittle flying from its maw.  
>He threw the plasma grenade down the things gullet and grunted.<br>"Chew on that" for agonizing seconds nothing happened, then a flash of green ripped the titan apart the force of the explosion threw Vincent against the ground.

Sarah felt a pit form in her stomach the moment that he ran towards the behemoth a pit which only churned when it got a hold of him and began crushing the life from his body, but she had continued firing at it Sarah had thought that this nameless man was doomed but was amazed when the behemoth exploded raining guts over the land scape most of the knights cheered others stood still awe struck Sarah blinked once twice then rushed over to where his body had fallen.  
>Sarah looked at what his unmoving form, her shoulders slumped another brave soldier fallen in battle, she was about to get up and walk away when she heard a noise behind her, a groan she looked back sure that she was imagining things and was astounded to see that he had moved his head to look at her.<br>"Did…I..Win?".

"OI, wake up time for din dins" Vincent shook Sarah from her slumber to find to her surprise that she was no longer gagged.  
>"I had a dream about you" she blurted out.<br>"Oh was it a nice dream" he asked from the kitchen area.  
>"It was about the past don't worry" she called not wanting to provoke him, like she did last time fearing that he may gag her again.<br>"Okay so how do mire lurk paddies sound to you?" he said poking his head around the corner.  
>"Better than old army rations" she replied genially excited at the concept of not eating something that was older than her father.<br>"Yeah retirement is such torment, soft beds, warm food" he joked, humming a pre-war song.  
>"Why are you so glib all of a sudden?" she didn't often see Vincent in such a good mood that he hummed.<br>"Well I haven't seen you in two years Blondie and it's been even longer than that since I've had a meal with someone" he said emerging from the kitchen, holding two plates of food.  
>"Umm not to kill the mood but how am I going to eat?" she asked, in repose he pulled out a knife.<br>"I'm going to untie your arms that's how" he replied as he began to saw at one of the bonds, as it snapped all of the ropes around her arms loosened and fell to the ground.  
>Sarah starched her arms getting the blood back into them, she then picked up the fork that was on her plate and began munching away at the food which to her surprise was quite tasty.<p>

Vincent carefully took a bite of the mire lurk meat on his plate, finding himself enraptured by the sight of Sarah two years had it been that long he must be losing his touch he had bound and gagged her just an hour ago and here he was sitting down and having dinner like they had so long ago, he had to admit the years hadn't aged her a day.  
>In hindsight leaving the brotherhood while it still had such a fragile grasp on things may not have been the wisest of choices; he knew how much things had degraded in the waste land supply shortages, disease, raids, had all become common place again.<br>But there was no point in thinking about the past what's done is done, and it probably wouldn't have panned out any other way.  
>"So how's the pride nowadays?" he asked as Sarah demolished the potatoes.<br>"Not good Kodiak's been transferred to Raven rock, Dusk has been going out of her way to piss off Gallows, Glade has drifted away from everyone, Colvin's dead, Vargas is MIA, and as for Gallows himself he hasn't changed" she said between mouthfuls.  
>"I see, finish your plate we leave for the citadel in hour".<p>

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><p>Author's note: okay readers I apologies for this chapter taking soooooooo long but life has unforgiving of late and my free time has been scarce lately so I do ask for your forgiveness and yes I played around with the layout of DC a bit.<p> 


	4. Getting under way

Fallout 3 tormented steel chp 4  
><strong>DISCLAMER: WE'VE DONE THIS BEFORE I DO NOT OWN FALLOUT 3 OR THE CONCEPTS BEHIND IT I DO OWN VINCENT FROST AND THE SUB PLOT OF THE STORY.<strong>_  
>Content warning: okay people under 18 you should know by now you don't like what I write then leave and so on and so forth.<em>_**  
>AOUTHERS NOTE: Okay my readers I have quite enjoyed writing this so far and judging by the feedback so have you so I will doggedly continue<strong>__.  
><em>

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><p>Sarah crawled out of the gloom slowly, something felt wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.<p>

She reached out to her left and was confused, when her hand did not feel the reassuring metallic coolness of her bed side lamp, she opened her eyes and saw not the faded grey of her room in the Citadel, but dirty red rust, blinking she rubbed her eyes, trying to dislodge whatever it was that was colouring her vision, when she recalled where she was, Rivet city, in the Weatherly hotel.

Propping herself up on her elbows Sarah looked around the room, taking the time to see the layout of the room, the paint on the walls was faded but still, by some miracle colourful, after years of neglect but most of the details were hard to make out due to the curtain being drawn over the port hole that passed for a window.  
>The room itself was a decent size, with the a small kitchen tacked onto the right side and a bathroom on the other, as for the bed which Vincent was asleep on, it was tucked in the far corner away from the door, and while it looked durable it seemed like it and the surrounding space had seen a lot of abuse recently, with all the slash marks on the walls.<br>As she observed the man that, once upon a time she would have laid her life down for, a thought crossed her mind; he was still asleep, what if she just slipped away, it was still a few hours before dawn, she could just grab her gear some caps and trudge back to the Citadel, and he would never be the wiser.  
>No she couldn't do that she was ordered to bring Vincent back, and if she waited he would go back with her of his own free will, making up her mind Sarah laid her head back down and closed her eyes completely unaware of the set that was watching her.<p>

Vincent, for all his flaws was a patient man, so when he caught the sound of Sarahs bed roll rustling, he allowed his eye to open just a touch, but that was enough to see Sarah up and looking around probably, wagering an internal war as to whether she should up and leave in the middle of the night, and she went and accused him of being an evil son of a bich for doing the same.  
>Waiting few more moment's Vincent had to fight to keep a grin appearing, as she laid down her head again and closed her eyes.<br>He waited, until he felt the warm caress of the early morning sun on his face, rolling off the bed he silently made his way over to the chair which his coat was hanging on, but before he slipped into the familiar coat, he pulled on his dark grey vambrace, the reinforced leather halting just before his elbow, he checked on the three straps that held the guard in place and strapped on his medical brace above it, on his right arm, ensuring that the appendage was covered entirely when he rolled his shirt back down, he looked over to where Sarah slept, he walked into the kitchen and retrieved a hard biscuit, and stopped four paces from her.  
>"If you don't wake up in three seconds I'm going to nail you with this biscuit" he announced loudly, as he pulled back his arm.<br>"One" grinning he moved back another pace just in case he had miscalculated her reach.  
>"Two" his only response being a groan he rotated the biscuit in his palm.<br>"THREE" throwing the dry snack he watched as it sailed through the air and exploded into a shower of brown dust as it impacted with Sarahs shoulder.  
>At the sudden and unexpected bludging she bolted upright, with a look of fury painted over her beautiful face, a look which shattered as she inhaled the dust left by the cookie, for a few moments, her face scrunched up, and then the sneezing began.<br>In between bouts of sneezing Vincent made out, multiple curses, directed at him, but he still couldn't help grinning.  
>When Sarah finally settled down she glared at him and demanded.<br>"What the hell was that for?" her voice a touch nasally from all of the sneezing.  
>"It was fun" he replied grinning and ignoring her annoyed glare.<br>"Oh well time of breakfast, and by breakfast I mean sugar bombs and Macadamia nuts" he said moving to the kitchen.  
>"Where the hell did you find nuts, of any kind?" she asked staring at the wall and racking her mind for when the last time, she had eaten nuts.<br>"I know where to look for what I need" called Vincent emerging with a bowl which was surprisingly clean, filled with Sugar bombs; Sarah took the bowel and began to eat the surgery bites.

While Sarah munched on her breakfast, he ran his mind over how he planned to deal with the promise he made to her, returning to the Citadel in and of itself was, a dangerous under taking equipped as he currently was, coupled with the fact that he really didn't want to go back there, especially since he had managed to walk away from the wasteland and all of its problems years ago.  
>His fingers rubbing his temples, he looked over at the faded panel on the far wall.<br>_Why am I doing this, am I trying to earn forgiveness, or am I just that goddamn board_.  
>With that grim question hanging over him Vincent, waited for Sarah to finish her food before he opened his mouth, and he took one last swig from his whiskey bottle before speaking.<br>"Are you sure that I can't convince you to just let a sleeping Vincent lie?" he asked as he cradled the empty bottle in his hands.  
>"Chain that binds" she replied absently placing her empty bowel on the ground.<br>"Ah yes I had hoped that you would turn a blind eye, but oh well I guess I'm going back with you, allow me a moment to gather my effects" he mumbled walking over to the panel, he drew back the bottle and smashed it into the wall, he picked up one of the smaller glass shards, and began using it as a screw driver on the screws, coming to the final screw he side stepped.  
>"Duck" as she moved out of the way he wrenched the panel open, and suppressed the urge to chuckle as a tight grouping of bullet holes appeared in the opposite wall.<br>"You trapped it" she asked her eyes darting between the bullet holes and the hidden safe.  
>"Of course I bloody trapped it, the item inside of here is more important than any other one thing that I own" he said turning the dial until it clicked into place, with that he turned to Sarah.<br>"Could you open the window in case I'm not fast enough to grab the spoon, so we don't explode" he asked, at his choice of words Sarah scrambled over to the port hole and pulled it open, with a quick grin Vincent, ripped open the safe and dove his hand into it grabbing for the grenade.  
>He felt his hand grasping the explosive just in time to see the spoon fly off.<br>"SHIT MOVE!" he yelled as he sprinted to the window, pegging the grenade and ducking behind the hull, in time to hear the resulting boom from the explosive, and the slight pinging as steel fragments from the grenade impacted the ship, Sarah looked over to him.  
>"WHAT THE FUCK, you rigged up a grenade to the inside of the safe, are you trying to kill yourself?" she yelled, he just grinned in response and moved back to the safe.<br>Hesitating for a moment, Vincent looked inside the steel box and saw it, the one thing that marked him out among the people of the wasteland, tucked into the back of that black metal box, was his pip boy, slowly he grasped the device and observed it for a moment, taking in all of the dust and scratches that marred it.  
>Letting out a shaky breath, he rolled up his left sleeve, and slid the pip boy onto his forearm, frowning as he felt a slight pinch as it readjusted to the size of his arm, Vincent pulled on the glove that came with it, and held it up to his eyes fiddling with the settings, until it was to his liking.<br>"We need to make a quick stop over at the broken side of the ship" he said looking over to her as he rolled his sleeve back down.  
>"Is it important?" she asked feeling weary and wanting to return to the Citadel as fast as possible.<br>"I'm not going to be much use without a gun that shoots bullets and not warm peas" he grumbled strapping his trench knife to the inside of his boot and dragging his pack out from under the bed, he went to the drug cabinet, he began placing the med-x, Buffout and stimpacks into the black lather bag he kept his medical supplies in, double checking that everything was in the right place Vincent, stood up and made his way out the door Sarah following behind him.

"This is where you left your gear?" Sarah asked in disbelief looking over the partially submerged door of the ship, it wasn't so much the location that was surprising but that the entrance was right out in the open.  
>"Trust me you'd need a fat man to bust through this" he replied fishing a key from his pocket, he turned the key in the lock, with a final rotation of the key a series of heavy clunks came from the door, before it lurched inwards slightly.<br>Proceeding onwards Vincent, confidently marched down the slanted hall and into a wide room with another door on the far wall, noticing the computer next to it Sarah took a step forward and into Vincent's arm, momentarily confused she stepped back, as he went to the opposite wall and pushed a switch, as the dim light flicked from red to green, the doors frame swung forward reviling a room full of laboratory equipment, and computers.  
>Casually striding in Vincent looked around before shouting.<br>"PINKERTON ya grumpy old bastard, you still alive?" there was a sound of metal crashing before someone began swearing profusely, as the cursing died down, an old man appeared from behind a set of filling cabinets, seeing Vincent the man frowned, a frown which only depend when he spotted Sarah.  
>"What are you doing back here?" he snipped turning his attention back to Vincent.<br>"I told you to hold onto some supplies for me I'll grab them and leave you in peace" he replied, the old man shuffled a bit and pointed to a set of lockers, and retuned to whatever it was that he was doing beforehand.  
>Opening the first locker Vincent retrieved a rifle, sword, revolver, and large back pack.<br>With that he turned back to Sarah nodding that they could leave, not sparing a glance at Pinkerton, they left traveling west until they came to the bridge which lead to the Citadel.  
>"We should make camp there" said Vincent, pointing to the underbelly on the bridge, with the sun hanging low Sarah, was reluctant to go one any further, in any case.<br>Nodding her approval he set to making a fire, while she unrolled the sleeping bags, by the time she had set everything to her satisfaction Vincent had set up a billy pot and was cooking what looked like Cram and insta mash mixed with carrot and water.  
>As the soup can to a boil he dolled it out equally into two tins, picking up her spoon Sarah began eat the meal in silence and was soon asleep listening to Vincent rummaging around in his pack, followed by the sound of metal on metal as he sharpened his katana, as the sound lulled her to sleep.<p>

Darkness, a crushing sea of inky black, am I dead he wondered incoherently.  
>For a time he floated in the deep abyss, and he welcomed, it.<br>No more wasteland needing to be saved, no more need to find his father only sweet oblivion, only to be pulled from its sweet embrace by pain unlike any other the burning red hot agony shooting through his right arm, then numbness in its place, all of the time listening to the incessant chittering from the blurry white figures around him.

He bolted up right gasping for breath, Vincent rubbed his eyes still waking from the hellish memory, after a moment he looked around they were still where he had set up camp under the bridge just outside of the purifier, Sarah was sound asleep on the other side of the now cold fire pit, looking at her he had to resist the temptation to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes.  
>Why the hell was he doing this? Sending her back to the Citadel would have been fine, but no he had to go with her, what should he do if they decide to be less than good willed, it was likely he would have to shoot his way out not an easy task then what would he disappear again perhaps?<p>

He sighed no that wouldn't have worked anyway the same trick never works twice, besides now he had to go back, since Sarah would sooner shoot herself before disobeying an order given by her precious father, which brought him back to the million cap question what was going to happen when they arrived at the Citadel, a trial he scoffed at the idea what would be the purpose, to find the why of things as an old friend had once told him.  
>What would most of them feel about the deserter Vincent, retuning anger mostly.<br>He thought as he fished around in his pack for something to eat, eventually he settled for some Macadamia nuts, he absently munched on them as he watched the sun rise, its glow chasing away the shadows of the night, time to move he thought as he rose and began rolling up his sleeping bag before walking over to Sarah, giving her a slight nudge with his boot.  
>"Come on Blondie sleeps for the dead" he said poking her with the tip of his boot again, all that he got in response was her rolling away from him and growling.<br>"Bugger off" giving a slight snort he quickly looked around and spotted a suitable garbage bin which was thankful empty he lifted it up and unsheathed his sword, grinning he began to hit the bin with the hilt of the weapon the noise echoing off of the underside off the bridge, amplifying the sound.

She groaned and sat up glaring bloody daggers at Vincent.  
>"Bastard" she grumbled as she began to crawl out of her sleeping bag, looking up at the bright orange yellow sky within the day they should arrive at the Citadel, her face fell into a frown as she thought of what her father would do to Vincent let alone what the rest of the brotherhood, might do none of them had taken his desertion lightly.<br>"I can't guarantee your safety you know" she said turning to face him.  
>"I've killed too many outcasts of your order for that to worry me, and I've faced worse things than men made of flesh and blood now have breakfast and let's get moving" he said tossing her a can of pork and beans which she dug into and was pleasantly surprised that the contents didn't possess the same bland metallic taste that most foods in the wasteland did.<br>"How do you always manage to find food that doesn't make a Geiger counter start screaming? She asked spooning through the cold soup looking for any chunky bits of meat.  
>"I'm a better scrounger then the rest of you" he replied smugly uncorking a bottle of whiskey.<p>

They made a decent pace moving through the back streets of DC.  
>Vincent's alarmingly effective methods of avoiding any Brotherhood patrols routes, had Sarah contemplateing if they could ever truly hold this man against his will, and as for super mutants they all seemed to be uninterested in two lone individuals, which wasn't such a surprise since they stayed well away from their territory.<br>Throughout the entire trip Sarah had been on edge the Capital rarely allowed people to slip through so easily, her musing were interrupted by Vincent coming to a halt on the edge on the ruins overlooking the Potomac river.  
>"Do you hear that"? He asked, Sarah stood still and listened nothing dead silence.<br>"Hear what?" she asked confused, half thinking that perhaps that the whiskey had finely gotten to him.  
>"Exactly no gun fire, no explosions, no screaming, nothing, something's wrong" he said his eyes roaming the area around them.<br>"Maybe we're just having a good day for once let's get going" she said having finally fed up with his paranoia.  
>"You don't have good days I think It's time for a detour" he said turning marching in the general direction of the purifier.<br>"What so you think that since no good men and women are dying that something's wrong"? She yelled to his back.  
>"Damn straight" he called over the shoulder, briefly Sarah was rooted to the ground as she asked herself again why was she following this man she then remember because she had been ordered to so clearing her mind Sarah Progressed onwards following the navy blue coat that was flapping in the wind.<p>

"Why the hell are we going the long way around?" Sarah asked her frustration finally getting the better of her.  
>"Because I don't want to waste bullets on raiders and this way your bloody sentry's won't see me coming" he said keeping his stride regular as he scanned the surrounding rubble for any threats.<br>"What and doubling our travel time is a smart thing because you want the element of surprise on people who aren't you're enemy?" she asked tiered of his petty excuses, he spun around at her statement with the signs of barely controlled rage written over his body.  
>"Do allies hunt each other, do they kick in your doors and shatter your hopes for peace, huh was my "Abandonment" so terrible, I wanted to leave all of this shit behind" he spat gesturing all around them at the ruined city.<br>"I didn't know I was a fucking prisoner oh yeah honorary knight of Lyons pride, hah if I had known that accepting that title bound me to the brotherhood I would never have said yes, besides you lot did fine before I came around I made you all soft by helping you and now you're paying the price for relying on one man" he snarled turning away he unstrapped his rife wanting to take his anger out on something small and defenceless.  
>Sarah was horrified as her mind shifted through his words and found that he was in some ways right refusing to accept it she retorted angrily.<br>"Bullshit, you had all the things you needed with the brotherhood, you left and we all suffered…" Vincent stopped mid step and turned around.  
>"What the fuck have you been smoking woman I had everything besides freedom the one thing I need, I think it would be best for you to stop moving your mouth before I sow it shut" he growled not in the mood to put up with Sarah trying to defend her order any further.<br>Vincent began trudging forward again Sarah silently following behind him.

By the time they came within spitting distance of the Jefferson Memorial, Vincent stopped again, kneeling down to peer into the distance, frowning he unslung his rife, which in Sarah's opinion looked like some old back water thing, that he picked up out of a swamp and welded a scope to.  
>"What is there a pissed off looking Brahmin on the road that might blow up if we get too close to it?"<br>She asked sarcastically throwing her hands up in the air.  
>"How long are they?" he murmured the scope of the rife roaming over the compound, taken aback by the question it took Sarah a moment to reply.<br>"How long are what?"  
>"The guards how long are their brakes?" he asked again as he searched through the scope finding a target.<br>"They don't have breaks it's a twelve hour rotational shift not a second goes by without guards being on duty" she replied her voice filled with concern.  
>"How many, guards in a shift?" he asked as he adjusted for wind and target movement, feeling a pit form in her stomach Sarah answered.<br>"Fifteen men"  
>"Ah good" he said firing a shot into the distance.<br>"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?" screamed Sarah diving forwards to snatch the gun away.  
>"Getting a tiny bit of vengeance on whomever murdered your brothers, look closely, one man alone out there and the way he was walking he's not used to power armour, the purifier's under attack" he finished pushing her away and ignoring the look of horror on her face.<br>"_The first day I get back and the goddamn steel suits are stuck knee deep in shit again_" he muttered, as he looked around checking to see if the shot had attracted any unwanted attention, after waiting a minute Vincent slung the rifle back over his shoulder and faced Sarah.  
>"Much as I may want to I won't shoot one of your precious brothers unless they shoot first" he said annoyed at her continued lack of faith in him.<br>Pushing aside his feelings he slowly inched forward, and looked over the figure that he had shot his hands roamed around the man's neck and was unsurprised when he didn't find a set of holo tags.  
>"You've got to love armour piercing rounds, oh and no holo tags, definitely not one of yours" he said smugly, not waiting for a reply he snuck forward.<br>Hearing nothing besides his boots crunching on the gravel he ran to the doors leading into the complex, flexing his fingers he threw the doors checking the corridor before a shot rang out and pain shot through his leg.  
>Letting out a curse he rolled behind the door again, and returned five shots from his revolver, before darting behind it again, looking down he summarised that no arteries were cut but it still hurt like a bitch, looking around he saw the barrel of a sniper rifle poking out from around the corner, whipping his head around he saw Sarah firing towards at the enemy, reloading he aimed at the glint of light from the scope and fired until his gun clicked empty, reloading and counting to ten he looked around again, and saw to his great delight a body crumpled on the floor.<br>Checking over his leg again he jammed a stimpack into the wound and wrapped a bandage around before he carefully he walked over to the corpse ignoring the throbbing from his leg, seeing the young man up close his frown deepened, average build, muscular by the looks of it, pulling the helmet off he saw his hair cut back to his scalp, but what was most worrying was that he was wearing combat armour that gave him an eerie sense of deja vu , matte black breast plate, with a leather duster coat, worn and torn in strange places, mostly from bullet holes by the looks of it, the same could be said of most of the outfit and yet he couldn't place where he had last seen it and strangely it felt familiar at the same time, filing it away for a later time he stripped the man of his ammo and grenades.  
>Looking back at Sarah he allowed her to take lead since he didn't feel like getting shot again, at the end of the hall were a set of double doors which if they could get through it would only be a short sprint to the man hole which led to sewers and eventually the Citadel.<br>Sarah positioned herself on one side of the door and he on the other, raising his hand, he counted down from three, before kicking the door in with his good leg.  
>He scanned the room in an instant and narrowed his eyes when he saw that it was empty, he didn't like this it was never this easy, carefully he checked the man hole for any sign that it may be rigged in some way, once satisfied he slowly lifted the iron circle, and proceeded down the ladder.<br>Then the high pitched screeching rang out from all directions, he knew it was too easy with that alarm being so loud they had to hurry, because Vincent had no doubt that there would be more from where that one man at the entrance came from, grabbing Sarahs hand he rushed down the tunnel.

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><p><strong>Authors note: yes folks I know it's evil leaving you guys on a cliff like this but I've ran into a solid wall of writers block so what I'm going to do is put this fic on back burner for the moment you know work on it in my spare time but good news I will start working on something a bit different in the meantime so please keep an eye on what I'm putting up and as always thank you :)<strong>


	5. Trial

Tormented steel chp 5  
><strong>DISCLAMER: I DO NOT OWN FALLOUT 3 OR ANY CONTENT MADE BY BETHESDA I DO OWN THE CONCEPT OF VINCENT FROST, AND THE SUB PLOT.<br>**_Content warning: under 18's keep you're noses out lest I bite them off.  
><em>_Authors note: Okay folks I'm still here and so is our favourite wastelander Vincent, so don't worry I'll keep things nice and interesting._

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><p>Fucking bullet wounds Vincent couldn't feel the lower part of his left leg and his left shoulder felt like it was on fire and Sarah was bleeding all over the other one, and this damn tunnel felt like it had no end.<br>Gritting his teeth Vincent kept running and kept telling himself, just get to the other end drop the unconscious lady, jam down some stim packs, Buffout and enough Whiskey to drown a mire lurk, and everything would be fine, that's when he heard a bullet fly past his ear, bastard's had caught up with them, he wasn't used to not being able to run faster or turn and shoot back, no he was busy carrying Sarah because she had to go and take a concussive grenade to the face, and a high powered armour piercing round to the guts, which proved that this was no mere band of raiders, and while he had stripped a few parts of her armour off she was still bloody heavy, combined with his leg he was moving at only half the speed he normally would have, then he saw it the end the tunnel, climbing up that ladder was going to be a bitch, especially with Blondie, on bored.  
>Pushing all other thoughts out of his mind Vincent, ran as fast as his body would move and threw himself and the ladder, grasping one of the rungs and shimmied his way up as fast as he could, which while it may not be as fast as he may have wanted, he almost fell when another bullet caught him in the lower back, but he held on and burst out onto the surface, clawing his way up he threw Sarah off of him and rolled onto his side unhooking a grenade off of his belt he pulled the pin and threw it down the hole before slamming the man hole down and covering his ears, seconds later the ground shook and green light flared up from around the steel cover, he didn't bother checking to see if his pursers had survived he just grabbed Sarah and limped over to the gate, by now the one standing guard had ran over to investigate.<br>"Son of bitch what did you do to her Frost!" demanded the female it took him a moment to place the voice but when it did click he let out a groan, Paladin Dusk, his luck was not improving he thought as he stabbed a stim into his leg but it combined with the sun light the bullet wounds weren't going to be a problem, then remembered that Sarah didn't have the benefit of genetic mutations like he did.  
>"Stow it paladin I need to get her inside before she bleeds out" he snarled picking her up again and jogging to the gates.<br>"Lyons ya crazy old goat let me in before your daughter dies and starts playing harp" he yelled into the intercom seconds passed then the gate rumbled open, and he rushed in if he hadn't had a dying woman in his arms Vincent may have found it comical as every face in the yard turned to him and whispers spread in his wake.

As he kicked in the med bay door and pushed Saw bones out of the way and laid Sarah out on the operating table, wasting no time he ripped open the medicine cabinet and jammed a syringe of med-x into her neck before prying off her chest plate he took out his knife and cut her shirt open, assessing the damage, he grabbed a pair of tweezers and a clamp.  
>"Robot get me an IV of O negative and hook it up to her" he ordered as he began attempting to clamp off the bleeding arteries.<br>By the time that Saw bones had found Sarahs vain and put the IV into her the elder had finally arrived and had begun ranting when Vincent cut him off.  
>"Either shut the hell up or leave" he yelled while he may have stopped her from bleeding and the IV was doing its job, he still hadn't found the bullet and if he flinched at the wrong moment he ran the risk of nicking something else, after pain staking seconds he found the little sucker it had grazed her liver but he could fix that with a stim, and it was far to close the stomach and spleen then he would have liked it to be, as he carefully fished it out he placed the mangled lump of lead in a specimen dish, he couldn't stop the bleeding completely and with its position attempting to use a tourniquet would be useless so thinking quickly he garbed Saw bones plasma touch and began quickly heating a metal rod until it glowed red hot.<br>"Thank god you aren't awake for this because you'd probably try to kill me if you were" he murmured before placing a hand on her chest in preparation as he trust the rod into the wound, in response Sarahs body reacted by doubling up and a cry rang out from her, as she stopped convulsing, he inspected the cauterization finding it satisfactory he set to the task of sowing her up.

His needle work was something that even his old man would have be proud of, he thought to himself as he injected a stim pack into Sarah to speed the healing possess along, as he washed his hands he glanced at the clock it had taken him just over half an hour to do all that, he was getting slow, frowning, and he readied himself for the father by taking a decent drink of whisky from his flask.  
>When Vincent closed the med bay door behind him the elder was the first to jump up.<br>"She'll live just don't bust the stiches, give her some bed rest and keep her away from the fight for a day or two, doctors' orders" he said as he checked that all of his wounds had closed up feeling a slight stiffness in his shoulder where the laser had grazed him.  
>"How dare you show your face here" growled Owyn his eyes narrowed to slits.<br>"Umm excuse me but you sent your goons after me remember or has your age finally caught up to you old man, and besides I just saved Sarahs life and the first thing you do is get pissed that I came here?" he snapped back clenching and unclenching his fists.  
>"One good deed does not cleanse a sea of evil, the only reason you aren't in a cell is because of what you just did" said the elder his steely gaze holding with Vincent's ice cold one.<br>"A sea of Evil?" Vincent chuckled "I leave you're ranks without a permission slip and you start a two year man hunt for me, sorry not buying it Lyons, tell me truthfully why you want me so bad?" he asked he may be a valuable fighter, and a dammed good doctor but he wasn't worth that much hassle, the elder leaned in closely to Vincent and whispered.  
><em>"You broke her heart, made a fool of me and weakened us as a whole"<em> Vincent couldn't help it when he began laughing, that was it, he had been hunted by Brotherhood because daddy was pissed that he had broken up with Sarah, and made him look bad, it was too cliché and he was about to say as such when Dusk threw her fist towards his face feeling much more sombre, he dodged ducking inwards, he grabbed her outstretched arm, while drawing a frag grenade from his coat and pressed it into her mouth since she had unwisely taken off her helmet.  
>"Now my dear you've gone and pissed me off, this grenade only has a half second timer on it so even if you manage to spit it out and even if your armour took most of the shrapnel the shock wave alone would turn your organs to jelly, don't EVER, try to get the better of me dusk" he snarled seeing the defiance in her eyes, along with the spark of fear, that he had wanted, Vincent glanced around, everyone in the room had suddenly gotten much closer.<br>"I'm going to let you go now" he said pulling the explosive out of her mouth, after which she backed away and glowered at him but remained silent with that little pissing match over Vincent made his way to the mess hall, but before he left he swang on his heel turning back to face them.  
>"Umm you know the Purifier is under attack right?" he didn't stick around to see their faces.<br>"_And they wonder why I support _euthanizer" muttered Vincent under his breath.

Two hundred year old army rations, fried ghoul would have tasted better, but with all of the things that he'd eaten over the years, it was fine dining so he took his plate and ate in silence even as the knights at the table across from him looked at him with disgust muttering things along the lines of traitor or deserter, when all of a sudden they went silent, Vincent made an educated guess.  
>"Gallows" as he expected the knight Captain sat down beside him, and did something completely out of character.<br>"You know that everyone in this complex wants to skin you alive?" he said only barely raising his voice enough that Vincent could hear him.  
>"I truly hadn't guessed, I save your Sentinel and somehow that just makes it worse" he replied taking a sip from his hip flask the whisky didn't stop him from feeling less and less inclined towards staying, when a thought occurred to him.<br>"I saw blast craters on my way in whose been nuking you guys?" he asked recalling the massive holes in the courtyard.  
>"Super mutants they got their hands on some fat men" at that concept Vincent almost choked on his food.<br>"Gallows you and I both know that it wasn't mutants, we also know that you didn't come here to have a chat, when is Lyons holding the trial?" he asked the elder wouldn't let him go now that he had him in his bony grasp.  
>"Two hours' time in the yard I was ordered to drag you to a cell in chains, but I know better than to try that" he confessed, Gallows may be many things but stupid was not among them.<br>"I'll come along Irving, hell I'll even let you bring me out in chains just to keep your reputation intact" Vincent said with a morbid grin the knight captain had once done him a favour; this was him paying it back in kind.

Small, crapped and grey the brotherhood cells were not very colourful, but that didn't interest him by his count any moment Gallows would open the door slap him in irons and lead him to a tribunal full of people who wanted his head on a stick either way he wasn't going to let them do anything of the kind it was just an hour past midday and the sun was high so getting shot would only slow him down, but Vincent's musing were interrupted by Gallows opening the door and placing him in chains, though he was careful not to make them too tight, the gesture was appreciated but unnecessary, but he did just love the looks that he got when he was led down the hall some were looks of distain others fear, you always know that you have the crowds eye when you're in chains and people still find you intimidating.  
>As he entered the light of the sun shining down upon the yard, he felt a surge of energy, yeah his mutations were doing their job, his eyes were drawn to the elevated table before him set in such a way so that he would have to look up to see the faces of his jury, the elder at the head of the table and the others in order according to rank getting lower the farther away from the elder you were, as Gallows took his seat beside them the ones that wish to flay the flesh form his bones, he looked at their faces Rothchild, Dusk, Cross, Glade, Tristan, well wasn't this just a cuddly bunch, the elder spoke first.<br>"Vincent Frost you are accused of desertion, and kidnaping a member of the Brotherhood of steel how do you plead?" he said looking at him down his nose.  
>"Not guilty and umm what's the penalty?" he asked although he had a good idea of it already.<br>"Death speak your case Frost" he replied.  
>"Well desertion, to be fair you never said I couldn't leave and kidnapping honestly you sent her after me, be fair" he said ignoring the gazes of the tribunal members.<br>"It should have been apparent from the start and you still held Sarah captive, for this you must be punished" he retorted.  
>"Okay so you're all going to just ignore the fact that I helped your cause by killing the leaders of the Enclave, pushed back the army of mutants that were at your door step, oh and let's not forget almost dying to give the Wasteland clean water, there wasn't anything more that needed to be done, I thought that you could handle things without me, which was a reasonable assumption but no when everything goes to shit you needed someone to pin it all on, so that everyone ignored your incompetence, besides I needed to leave" Vincent yelled allowing the accusation to sink in none of them looked impressed.<br>"And what pray tell was it that was in such dire need of your attention?" sneered Dusk, she truly was an unpleasant woman.  
>"Matter's in the Mohave Desert, involving water I revived a letter from the Mohave express, detailing that someone over there desperately needed my help, as it turned out my presence ensured the capitals safety from a legion which would have come here from the west and crushed what little resistance there is here, so I'm sorry if my absence cost you but the price would have been far worse if I hadn't left" he explained damn that woman if he had known that helping the courier would have done this he may have reconsidered but in the end he saved these insolent fools yet again, but they insisted that he be punished for it.<br>"This can be put aside for the moment what I want to know is what happened at the purifier" asked Paladin Tristen, who seemed to be a little less interested in a lynching and more focused on seeking the truth for which he was somewhat thankful.  
>"When myself and the Sentinel, entered the purifier, we were confronted by a man claiming to be one of the brotherhood paladin's, however when we began to question his story he became hostile and attacked us, after that we discovered that he didn't have any tags on him and when inside the compound we were attacked again by an unknown force, when we attempted to flee Sarah was wounded and disabled, after I carried her down the same tunnel that doctor Li used to escape the Enclave" he explained leaving out the small detail that they had never engaged in convocation with the guards and that he had only shot at extreme long range but with this new information he was forced to listen to them bickering among themselves.<p>

The first thing she felt was pain, it felt as if she had been the punching bag for a really pissed off enclave trooper, as she began to open her eyes she almost instantly covered them again, against lights which were far too bright for her eyes to handle, covering her side and guarding her eyes Sarah slowly began to sit up.  
>Only when her head cleared did she see the knight standing watch over her she could not recall his name only that he was a hell of a shot in battle.<br>"How long?" she asked still trying to drag herself from the thick fog which held onto her mind.  
>"A few hours since Frost dragged you in here and patched you up" he replied not even remotely attempting to hide the disdain in his voice.<br>"Where is he?" she asked as the throbbing began to die down.  
>"Standing trial in the main yard" he responded, hearing this she shot upright which was a bad choice, as it brought back the pain in her abdomen with reinforcements, lifting up her shirt she saw the sucher stich's running in a small line up her abdomen the edges around it singed shut, she was going to kill that son of bitch, she thought briefly before the knights words registered within her mind.<br>"What do you mean trial?" she asked her voice quivering but this time not from the pain.  
>"His trial, you know, for desertion, the savage beating received by Cross and her team and your kidnap" he finished as he held out a glass of aqua pura for her to drink, which she gladly took before speaking.<br>"I need to get there, before he gets bored or pissed off and kills someone" she groaned doing her best to stand up, to her surprise the man stood up and helped her up out of the bed allowing her to lean on his shoulder she nodded her thanks to him, and went quickly as she they move down the wing and to the court yard.

In all his years in both the vault and the wasteland Vincent had never seen a group of people argue this little, over something it seemed that all of his judges except for Gallows, and perhaps Tristan, had made their disunion before the "trial" had even began, as the discussion came to a close elder Lyons silenced them and read the verdict.  
>"After much deliberation this Tribunal has decided that the convicted Vincent Frost is…." But before he could finish one of the doors burst outwards and Sarah limped out, Vincent wasn't sure if he should laugh or frown, she shouldn't be moving about so soon she may rip open her stiches.<br>"STOP" she shouted leaning heavily on the man beside her.  
>"What your accusing Vincent is insane" she said pushing off of the man, sometimes that beautiful woman was too damn stubborn for her own good.<br>"Sarah you are not a part of this leave" hissed the elder Vincent may have paid more attention to the agreement that was going on between the two if his ears hadn't picked up a high whistling sound, a first he tried to ignore it but it just became louder and louder until it was verging on become painful he looked up at the rest of them and by what he could tell they were all oblivious to the ringing, rotating his head Vincent attempted to locate the source of the noise, within moments he decided that it was not emanating from inside the court yard, but if not here where?  
>His silent question was answered almost instantly as the great steel gate at the front of the complex blew inwards, reacting instinctively he drew his wrists inwards before snapping them outwards the cuff on his right hand snapped like cheap plastic whereas the one on his left hand dislocated his wrist, snarling he ran over to Sarah to shield her from what would inevitably come next, mere seconds later the inner doors blew inwards with men clad in the some armour as the ones at the purifier came rushing in shooting at everything that moved.<br>Acting quickly he grabbed Sarahs hand pulled her along with enough force to poetically pull her arm from her shoulder socket but at the moment he could care less, at the moment ignoring her cry of pain he rushed to the doors of wing A, shoulder rushing the door he kept running down the twisting passage ways until he burst into the Armoury, he ignored the many weapons and went to the back of the room he let go of Sarah and pushed on the wall, quickly he felt the wall push in and revile a hidden tunnel with two back packs he tossed one to Sarah and threw the other over his arm, he was about to begin running again when he saw something, his weapons scoping them up he silently thanked the Brotherhood for being so stiff to protocol and grabbed Sarahs hand again before throwing a lever that closed the wall again and began running once more, after about twenty minutes of straight running he saw light up ahead as he came closer to the end he saw something that he had been dreading from the moment that he had entered this passage, the metal grate that covered the exit letting go of Sarahs hand he grabbed one of the middle bars with his right hand and pulled back with as much force as he could he heard the bars groan and brake but in the possess he could feel a set of servos strain when he next had the chance he would have to do some maintenance looking back, he saw Sarahs astounded face but thankful she was silent for the moment but he knew that she would begin asking the moment she had a chance.

After a few hours they finally stopped and made camp while Sarah collected something to fuel a fire he set to the task of assessing the damage sustained to his left wrist, thankfully after a moment of examination he decided that he had been incorrect in assuming that it had been dislocated only badly strained so he simply injected a stimpack into the joint and made a note to leave it uncovered when they began traveling again in the morning so that he could get it in direct sunlight.  
>Soon after that Sarah returned with some wooden planks, with which he started a fire, and grabbed a can of pork and beans over it.<br>"I think I've earned some answers, Vincent" said Sarah just as he predicted she would.  
>"Yes I suppose you have where do you want to start?" he replied while stirring the soup with a small spoon.<br>"How about how the hell you broke out of your cuffs let alone the way you ripped that grate off like it was made of rotten wood?" she asked the edge in her voice was more than apparent, in response he stopped stirring and lifted up his right arm and pulled down the sleave of his azure coat, reviling the leather vambrace, and thick medical brace which completely covered his arm from hand to shoulder, at her puzzled look he began unwrapping the layers of leather, to show the metal underneath she looked at the artificial appendage, with a mix of horror and surprise.  
>His arm looked slightly like the arm off of a suit of power armour or at least some of it did, other patches looked like he had replaced parts with other materials some of it looked like pieces from bits from an Enclave hellfire suit, and some were made of metals which she had never seen before, as she looked up to his shoulder she saw that the arm went up past his shoulder and stopped only a few centimetres away from his neck.<br>"Next question" he said calmly as he began recovering his arm which broke the spell that had glued Sarahs eyes to the appendage.  
>"Where did you get that?" she asked her voice quivering slightly, she had never seen a successful operation where an entire arm had been replaced; she definitely wanted to know where this technology was.<br>"In the same place I disappeared to, the Mohave Desert long story short I was ambushed and a friend of mine saved me and replaced what I had lost with this" he said, wiggling his fingers for effect.  
>"Next" Sarah was silent for a moment before speaking again.<br>"Who attacked the Citadel?" she asked her voice low and monotone.  
>"From what I saw my guess is the NCR, the armours changed a little but they were definitely using Ranger tactics" he said even as he wondered how few escaped alive from the attack, not many he expected since the steel suits were never keen to give ground and were far too happy to die over it.<br>"Who the hell are the NCR?" she asked as she began checking over the meal.  
>"The New California Republic, the most well-armed and well fed bunch of raiders you've ever met, they talk a good game about setting up laws bringing peace but all they do is go where something valuable is and they take it" he replied recalling how the pompous jar heads had started a small war over a dam, just as an excuse to try and take over New Vegas, but they both had bigger things to worry about then the past.<br>"Come on dinner ready we'll eat and set off to Megaton in the morning" he said ending the Q and A session.

Being a raider wasn't as fun as he had first thought it would be, Gavin absently thought to himself, you had to move around a lot, recently the pickings had been alarmingly thin and you never managed to get the smell and colour of blood out of your cloths.  
>But tonight he and another raider waited at their post on the main road into the capital, but by wait he meant that he kept watch while the other guy slept his lazy ass off, but he didn't bother waking him because, the asshole had trouble with keeping his fucking mouth shut, and silence was a sweet commodity around him.<br>As Gavin mulled over what radioactive shit he would have to force down his throat, he saw something on the horizon, he had difficulty making them out but it was definitely two different shapes, the day was looking up, so he kicked the sleeping man, who was less than happy about that and was beginning to foam at the mouth, until Gavin pointed out the figures which were now much closer, thankfully he shut up and readied his gun, as the newcomers approached he smiled to himself two lone women tonight was really looking up, he thought as they finally the two had come to a stop in front of him.  
>"My lovely lady's I'm going to have to insist that you give us everything you have on you and umm that means your clothes too" he said pointing his assault rifle at them, the one on the left looked strange since she was wearing a brown robe, and hiding her right hand behind her back.<br>The other however seemed more dangerous of the two, she was dressed in a black duster coat with what looked like a large twenty one inside of a blackjack spade, and a large black brimmed hat, what worried Galvin now was the fact that it looked like the woman had an armoury with her, a forty five pistol, and tomahawk was under her coat and she had a huge rifle strapped to her back which he only now noticed.  
>"Veronica by your leave" she said to the woman in the robes, who promptly sprang at the two men with her right fist or to be more accurate her power fist.<p>

"You know I love it when you manage to keep your cloths mostly clean, dear" said the Courier, looking over the raiders carcasses.  
>"You could have helped a little Ava" Veronica replied taking a mostly clean rag from one of the raiders and wiping some of the blood from her gauntlet.<br>"I knew that you had it under control, regardless we need to find him soon the Legion is on its way here"

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><p><strong>Well folks another chapter up I hope you like it and recall I live on good will and reviews<strong>


	6. Home

Fallout 3 Tormented steel chp 6  
><strong>DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN FALLOUT BE NICE IF I DID BUT I DON'T OKAY.<br>**_Content warning: under 18 well I'm sure that if you've read up to here you know how I write but tonight is special because today I get to put up my favourite warning, smut and lemony goodness ahead and if you don't know what that means you'll soon find out .  
><em>_**Authors note: Okay well I am going to flesh out Ava aka the courier and give you all a little back story so say hello Megaton**_.

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><p>Sarah knew that she had to be quick when the time came, and that she had to time her attack perfectly or there would be the devil to pay, so pushing all other thought from her mind she carefully opened the tin of turpentine and slowly sprinkled it into the sleeping man's hand, when a sufficient pile had built up she put down the tin and produced a feather, with just the tip of her fluffy weapon she tickled his nose, as he began to grunt in his sleep she was sure that everything was going to plan right up until the point where he whipped open his eyes and threw the foul powder into her face.<p>

Vincent grinned like a small vault child, on his tenth birthday, which brought back the memories of when he had turned ten years old, and that stopped him smiling very quickly.  
>"Don't you know Sarah when it comes down to things like this I always win" he said as she tried in vain to stop coughing and clear her nose at the same time.<br>"I was sure that I had you this time" Sarah croaked when she could speak properly again.  
>"Don't you know that I always win" he said as he began rummaging around in his bag for a snack in the end he settled for a piece of gum, to keep his jaw occupied, while Sarah cleaned her face, when she was done they both picked up their packs and headed down town since they were still in the city they moved down the street a block and entered the South Mason metro tunnels.<p>

Dark, dank and going down it turned out that the passage way was ghouls and full of ghouls which gave him a perfect opportunity, since he had a lot on his mind he wanted to work out some of the stress while being able to think at the same time making a decision Vincent drew his Katana, and proceeded down the passage, Sarah drew her laser rifle, but stayed behind him since she hadn't, grabbed a suit of power armour on their escape form the Citadel, Vincent crept forward his eyes had already adjusted to the dark from the moment they entered the metro, but Sarah didn't have that advantage, and looking back on it now he realised, that in a way he had become less, and less human with every mutation, but he endured, he had to since no one could take his place no one else could heal themselves by standing in the sun light or see in the blackest dark or withstand almost double the lethal douse of radiation as a normal person, and that was only the start of a laundry list of things that made him different but all of that, the things which made him the outsider looking in, they made him stronger, they made him the lone wanderer, a true mortal, or at least that's what three dog had called him.  
>While his mind mused over this his body went on auto pilot and did what it did best, leaving a bloody trail of body's behind him, it was almost disturbing how easily he could kill without needing to think about it, but then of course these were just feral ghouls he would only bother acknowledging the more interesting things like Reavers, of which he encountered five of before emerging on the other side of the metro at the West Farragut station and began following the river.<p>

When Vincent saw the edge of the river, he stopped and scanned the buildings on the other side, after a few seconds he turned to his right and began heading up river, Sarah raised an eyebrow at this but followed Vincent would tell her why he changed direction so suddenly in his own time.  
>About half an hour after they passed the ancient freeway, he turned left towards the west again.<br>"By now the reason for why I avoided Grey ditch should be apparent to you by now yes?" he asked over his shoulder.  
>"No it isn't" Sarah replied Vincent always thought of all things like they were all a set of chess moves but rarely did his method become apparent until it was viewed in hindsight.<br>"I did it because the NCR would have setup riflemen in every window and hidey hole that they could" he sighed Vincent had been sure that something like that would have been apparent to Sarah after all it was what he would have done.  
>"And why do you think that?" she asked, Vincent was being even stranger than usual.<br>"Okay think about it they were at the purifier so they have the east covered, but the brotherhood knows that, so they won't go that way, the north puts them deeper into mutant territory going south you get cut off by the sea and the nearest settlement besides Rivet city is Megaton, which is to the north west, and that little bone yard of a city is perfect for a gauntlet, place snipers on all sides you're brothers wouldn't stand a chance, so in order to avoid all of that we go to the far north then west and finally south" he explained the NCR did love it when the could cover multiple fronts with minimal manpower.  
>"You learned all of this in the Mohave?" she asked, she needed to understand what he went through, and what had happened to him.<br>"Yes let's just say that I was on the receiving end of a very similar attack by them there" he said as he stopped walking and looked over towards the horizon recalling the memory of the siege of Jacobs's town.  
>"They came in the dead of night, our backs were to the mountains we only had one way out and it was their way in, soon what we had in the way of soldiers, were tired and hungry still very eager, but in the end they had an army all we had were a handful of reformed super mutants, Ava, and me, we lasted a while but suddenly the NCR pulled back, and when we stuck out our noses to see why they blew the charges collapsing the mountain sides on us those that weren't crushed or cut off on the other side were forced to run down the winding path which ran through a forest filled to the brim with NCR rangers, only we got out alive" he murmured but they got their revenge a hundred fold afterwards.<p>

Sarah quietly listened, Vincent rarely did things like this, after all when they had been together he never talked about his life in the vault, or much of anything but that was one of the things that had drawn her to him his mystery and the satisfaction when she managed to learn something more about him, she still remembered the day that she, found out some of why he hates robots, or at least in part, from what he had told her it had been because of cutting cake, and that was something even if it was cryptic as hell when a thought occurred to her and she almost wanted hit herself for not thinking of it sooner.  
>"How many men do you think survived, the attack?" hearing this Vincent stopped and turned to face her.<br>"Honestly I'd be surprised if anyone but you're most seasoned veterans made it out alive, I know that's not the news you wanted, but the NCR is nothing if not efficient" he responded, Sarahs head sunk at the news, but they kept moving towards Megaton.

"Are you sure he'll come?" Veronica asked, surveying the town.  
>"I'm sure after all it's were his house is" Ava replied, even though she did have some doubts about why Vincent would live in a place like this even if you thought the scenery was the bomb, it was difficult to overlook the fucking atomic bomb, but the words had come from the man's mouth, that he owned a house in Megaton.<br>"Regardless we don't have the time to go running around in wastes, that we don't know anything about, and he will show up here let's just hope he shows up soon" she said after all they didn't have all the time in the world.  
>"Well at least I have you here for… compony" whispered Veronica, her breath caressing Ava's neck, before stroking, her shoulders and cupping her ass possessively shuddering Ava almost gave in right there and then, but she held back when she hazily remembered that they were in plain sight for anyone who cared to watch.<br>"N…not here mmmm lets find a room" she breathed even if she wanted nothing more than to rip the other woman's cloths off, groaning Veronica reluctantly let up as an idea came to life in her mind.  
>"We both know that the wanderer has a thing for whiskey let's go to the saloon we can keep an eye out for him there" she suggested her hands still having trouble staying still, which showed the remarkable restraint she was excreting but that wouldn't last so she quickly grabbed her lovers hand and raced up to the local saloon, she didn't even bother looking around she just threw a bag of caps onto the counter and dashed up the stairs, they had barely gotten into one of the rooms before Veronicas lips smashed into hers, and the kiss only ended when both of their lungs were burning, gasping for air Ava ran one of her hands up Veronicas inner thigh, whilst the other worked on freeing them both from the confines of their clothing, but her efforts were somewhat hampered since Veronica refused to stop planting kisses over her body, by the time that Ava had freed Veronica and herself, from the restrictive cloth she was burning and by the feel of it Veronica was much the same, so acting quickly she, snaked her hands around her waist to grasp her firmly and lifted her up before depositing her on the bed, and grinning evilly, she began working her tongue, on Veronicas, glistening folds, which pulled a moan from her partner, who then clapped her hands over the back of Avas head, showing her just how much she enjoyed the courier's actions, soon Ava felt Veronica begin to wriggle more intensely, her moans reaching a crescendo, as she felt her first release.<br>"My turn" Ava panted.

Vincent, was for one of the few times in his life unsure how to handle a situation, Sarah had been far more quite then normal and the way that she kept playing with her holo tags just proved it, she had to be worried about her father, and the rest of her makeshift family, and if they were still shuffling about, honestly he could care less about their fates but Sarah cared so he had to devote some thought to them, so thinking logically he needed Sarah in peak condition, both mentality and physically, but she was concerned about people who were most likely dead, which would in turn affect her ability to fight and think with clarity, so to defuse this problem he simply needed to take her mind off of them, so he dug around in his pack and pulled out, a dusty yoyo, it always helped him think more clearly and focus so it should help Sarah.  
>"Oi Blondie catch" he said tossing the yoyo to her which she barely managed to catch, examining it she gave him a sideways look.<br>"You throw it up and down with the string hooked around your finger" he said blandly, she simply shook her head but he was satisfied when she began spinning it up and down on the string, with that out of the way he turned back to, the trail feeling content, as he listened to the sound of the small device spin, hopefully working out Sarahs mental kinks with every revolution, so enraptured by the pleasant sound, he almost didn't see the blur in time, but his body reacted instantly throwing himself out of the way, he heard the beast snarl in anger, as it whipped it's body around, to faced him.  
>And what a body it was black quills stood up on its back rustling like an invisible breeze was blowing them, it's body looked lupine in nature but it was far larger than any dog or wolf her had ever seen in his travels and it's maw was filled with rows of razor sharp teeth and by the size of the jaws on it the thing could open its mouth wide enough to swallow his arm whole it, was both a beautiful and fearsome sight, by now Sarah had long since discarded the yoyo and pulled her laser rifle from her back, and had opened fire on it.<br>Vincent on the other hand was busy observing the beast it opened its hellish mouth and let out a deep roar before leaping towards him again even faster than it had originally, unlike the first time however the things claws tore a bloody gash across his shoulder, letting out a grunt of pain he felt much more like killing this new monstrosity rather than studying it, and besides he could dissect it later, when Sarah finally landed a hit on the things head it simply snorted and shock it's head before leaping again but this time he was ready for it he threw out his right hand with all of his considerable might and impacted the thing right in the bridge of the nose which promptly collapsed inwards and began spurting inky black blood, but the beast was more resilient than that, after all it was still alive.  
>Vincent quickly took the opportunity while it was stunned, and drew his Katana he slashed at its snout again before plunging the blade into an unprotected eye socket, the beast howled in pain as he dug his sword in further, attempting to end the monster before it flailed those wicked claws in his direction again, he drew his revolver and emptied the clip into the other eye, but the things constant movement, and the awkward angle prevented him from blinding if fully before he could try again it gathered some sense and battered a giant paw at him throwing him back, and forcing him to let go of his beloved sword, hitting the ground drove the wind from him, Sarah on the other hand had opted to not bother using her guns anymore and had begun throwing a cluster frag grenades at the thing, Vincent watched in a mix of awe and dismay, as they went off throwing a cloud of dust and dirt into the air, he completely ignored the possibility that the beast was still alive and looked at Sarah with open mouthed horror.<br>"YOU KNOW MY FUCKING SWORD IS STILL STUCK IN THAT THING" he shouted, she just shrugged.  
>"What would you prefer that you lose your oversized bread knife, or be dead" she retorted.<br>"Dead definitely dead" he snarled, she had no idea how much trouble he had gone through to get that sword, as the dust settled he went over to inspect the corpse and the remains of his favourite blade, he looked at the beast and was amazed that it was still mostly in one piece, and was absolutely speechless when he saw that his Katana was intact, he pulled it out and berley, able to stop himself from hugging the blade, before turning back to Sarah.  
>"You are SO lucky, and you truly have no idea how much so" Vincent said checking over the blade with both his eyes and using his pip boy to check for any impurities or cracks, after a few minutes of doing so he was extremely pleased that the Katana had only suffered some scouring which he could polish out later, he thought happily sheathing the sword, he remembered the animal, and looked over the carcass, as he first thought it definitely resembled a dog, but had spines instead of fur, and the hide underneath felt far more tough then it should have in fact as he thought of it in more detail it seemed exactly like the skin on a death claw, and that only worried him more, and from the mere size and dogged stubbornness to not die and that it's skull had shielded his sword from the blast proved that it was heavily mutated but he had never encountered it's like in all five years of his journeys to the north of the capital wastes and beyond, which was a rare, so he pulled out his knife and began cutting into its gut's to see what was were.<br>After twenty minutes of examining various organs, he summarised that it had two hearts instead of one, that all of its bones were reinforced on account of being solid and the ribs were close enough together that getting a bullet of blade through them would be difficult if they could work it into the flesh first, which made this thing one tough son of a bitch to kill.  
>In a private tradition of his he opened its maw and ripped out the largest tooth inside of it, and placed it on a small wire ring, which he put back in his coat, before looking at Sarah.<br>"Let's get going, I don't want to be out here after dark" he said picking up his pack and trudging onwards.

Sarah had been feeling more and more uneasy since they had killed that thing, sure she had seen some twisted shit before but a Yao guai looked better than the beast they had faced, but she could deal with that what was truly gnawing at her was the fear, fear that she was the last member of the Brotherhood alive, but that was misplaced since there had been a significant bulk of their number posted at Raven rock, but then the doubt grasped onto that thought and twisted it, what if the NCR had struck there as well, and this helplessness was driving her to madness, she was wrenched from her thought's when Vincent made a sharp turn.  
>"Wait here I just need to duck into the super-duper mart, for a moment" he said walking into the building.<br>When he emerged he had blood spattered all over his cloths, and while she was tempted to ask if any was his, she remembered who he was and didn't ask stupid questions, and settled for giving him a questioning look.  
>"I needed apples" he said simply.<p>

"Welcome to Megaton the home of the Lone Wanderer?" he said to the air.  
>"I'm going to find whoever put that sign up and skin them alive" who the hell was idiotic enough to use his likeness to increase tourist trade.<br>Sure he disarmed the atomic bomb at the towns centre and had done a few other things along the way but truly he felt insulted that in his two year absence, he had become nothing more than an advertisement, so before he came to his scenes or Sarah tried to stop him, Vincent pulled a plasma grenade from his belt and pegged it at the abomination.  
>In the resulting explosion all that was left of the sign was a twisted sizzling lump of metal, feeling much better about his day, he walked past it and saw the large gate of Megaton, stopping for a moment he pulled a packet of Daddy boy apples from his bag, and walked up to the metal structure.<br>"OPEN UP STOCKHOLEM" he shouted before throwing the packet, up to the guards little platform.  
>After a few moments the engine above the gate spun up and opened up the large gates into Megaton, Vincent turned to face Sarah.<br>"Stockholm has a thing for Daddy boy apples" he said shrugging the funny little man in the tower always seemed happier once he had his hands on some he mused to himself as he pulled his hood over his head.  
>Sarah stayed silent and just followed Vincent in through the gates, she took in the lay of the land Megaton, was a bit bigger than the Citadel but that was where any comparison ended, Megaton looked like it had been welded together by all of the scrap metal of the wastes all of the building were wonky, and none of them looked structurally sound, but all of this was over shadowed, by the massive war head in the towns centre, sure like anyone one else in the wastes with an antenna and some receivers she had heard that the lone wanderer had ensured that the towns dormant bomb stayed that way but she hadn't thought that it would be that big.<br>"Hey Blondie, you can stare at the nuclear device later now you get the tour" he said braking her from the trance that had taken hold of her.  
>"First thing right in front of you on the bottom level in the church, don't go in there unless you want to deal with all of the radioactive crazies, above that is the saloon, down there next to the Brahmin is the clinic, the doctor there may be a foul tempered git but he knows his craft, beside that is the brass lantern, they got some good food, umm to the right and up in the store, the woman who runs it may be a touch…. Eccentric but she a good person, and above the lantern is my house, which seems to have become, a stimulant for the towns economy" he ground out pointing at all of the locations.<br>"Okay so where do we go first?" Sarah asked looking at him.  
>"Well I don't know about you but first I want to unload some of this junk to Moira, then I need to see if Wadsworth did as I ordered him to, and then I'm going to grab a whiskey and say hi to an old friend" he finished, walking off to the Crater side supply.<p>

Vincent opened the door to the Store, and looked around before a voice called out from the back somewhere.  
>"Just hold on a moment, I'll be with you shortly" which was proceeded, by Moira appearing covered in black gunk.<br>"Hello your new around Megaton because I'm sure I haven't seen your face around here before, welcome to the crater side supply" she chirped, happily, even if her statement was a touch redundant since she couldn't see his face.  
>"Hello Moira nice to see you again" he whispered, it took her a moment but her brows scrunched together, before her face contorted into a mask of thinly valid horror.<br>"Your…you.. you died, they killed you, you can't be here your dead THEY KILLED YOU" she screeched her voice raising with every word.  
>"What not happy to see your co-author?" he asked grinning wickedly, but instead of the reaction the presumed that she would take, the little red head ran up to him and tackled him to the ground in a crushing hug.<br>"Your back your back your back" she squealed in excitement, he did his best to return the hug but it was difficult to do so with his arms pinned the way they were, after a few minutes he managed to stand up with the woman still hanging off of him like a crazed twelve year old would, to a piece of candy.  
>"It's good to be back umm can I have my me back?" he chuckled, Moira then reluctantly let go of Vincent and set into her motor mouth habit of asking him a thousand questions, about where he'd been what he'd been doing and why the hell he hadn't, come back to his favourite little store owner, and he answered them all, which took him far longer than anticipated they got down to the business of selling off the odds and ends that he had picked up.<br>"And just you remember tell me before you go out again" she said as she handed over a bag of caps.  
>"I will don't you worry about that" he assured her as he walked out.<p>

On the lower side of town Sarah had grabbed a quick meal from the brass lantern and was happily chewing it when she overheard something odd.  
>"Hey did you hear the Wanderer's back Stockholm's been raving about it to anyone who'll listen" said one woman to the man sitting opposite her.<br>"Impossible that asshole got his in the attack well over two years ago, I mean half the town saw him get ripped to shreds by death claws, and even if it was him why the fuck would he come back here everyone knows them bloody steel suits got it in for him" he replied by now Sarah was more than interested.  
>"No that's the thing we don't see him die we all just saw him luring them away to protect the rest of us, for all we know he survived" she retorted.<br>"No there's no way that anyone could out run that many Death claws, and fighting them off ha no we can all rest easy knowing that Vincent Frost is dead" he concluded Sarah didn't stick around to hear if the woman had counter argument, she needed to confront Vincent about this.

He wasn't sure how to handle this all he knew was he felt rage unadulterated rage, but he controlled it barely, condemned in big red spray painted letters, scrawled over his door, in some ways he understood it he had been dead in their eyes, but what got to him was that they all went against what he had told them not to do, that under no circumstance should anyone ever attempt to enter his home unless he was there to allow them in, and the words under condemned on confirmed that someone had tried.  
>Do not enter killer robot inside, he had ordered Wadsworth, to only kill if someone tried to force their way inside and anything other than that he simply had to stun them and toss them out.<br>He slipped the key into the lock and opened the door, and was greeted, a glowing plasma rod.  
>"Leave the premises now or I will be forced to throw you out" the deep mechanical said a voice which was attached to a large floating body with glowing crimson eyes.<br>"Wadsworth stand down, deactivate guard dog protocol, authorisation, two one six, bravo, delta, Juliet, Uniform, Lima, Yankee, thirteen, two, two, five, eight" he barked, and instantly the robot lowered its weapons and its eye stalks turned back to their regular orange colour.  
>"It's so very good to see you alive, master; it has been, two years three months, one week, four hours and fifty five minutes, since you last came home, and I do apologize that it has, fallen into its current state but cleaning opportunity's, have been limited with all five hundred and seventy four brake in attempts, all of which I have dealt with personally" the droid recited happily.<br>"How many of the thieves ended up dead Wadsworth?" he asked looking around and the commutable grey walls of his home.  
>"Three hundred and fifty nine" he replied floating beside his master his emotional emulators, brimming with joy knowing that he had filled out his orders perfectly.<br>"You did well Wadsworth, activate visual scan and store in memory banks" he said, after all he didn't want to repeat the pass code every time he walked in the door.  
>"Command confirmed Master, appearance, stored" Wadsworth, chimed.<br>"All of my weapons are still in the place's that I put them?" he asked even though he knew what the answer would be.  
>"Of course master, I have kept them clean of all dust particles and in pristine condition as par previous instructions" Wadsworth reported floating over to the centre of the room and slowly rotated, since all of the walls in his house were covered in different weapons and armour, divided into different sections depending on what category it fell into grenades, pistols rifles, energy weapons, heavy weapons, melee, and the unique weapons, models that were a step above any other of its kind in one way or the other, but he looked over his current inventory, the back water rifle, wild bills revolver, the trench knife, and not enough grenades, but the tiny pistol just wasn't cutting it, the battle with that giant wolf proved it, so he placed the pistol on its holder, and browsed over the other pistols, eventually he picked out one of his favourite guns the black hawk, but he still felt underarmed so he grabbed a leg holster and placed "the knee capper" inside of it, and grabbed a pair of spiked knuckles, as well as stocking up on grenades now he was feeling much better, now that, he had a more sensible amount of weaponry on his person.<br>After stocking up on ammo Vincent, went over to his work bench and removed his coat and chest piece, he began inspecting the material, the claws had done a number on his jacket, but he quickly gathered, so strips of Kevlar and leather and began working on, repairing the protective under lining and the outer layer, even if the resistant cloth was only a thin layer it should be done better than that against the claws, but he would make do, after that he started replacing the shock plates in the armour he wore underneath the coat, since a few of the ones in the back had been cracked by AP rounds but he had plenty to replace it with and he could always use thicker ones, but they would slow him down, and he preferred speed over protection after all, he could just regenerate, or sow himself up.  
>As Vincent was finishing cleaning the gun oil and lube grease, off of his hands, when Sarah threw open his front door, with enough force to rattle some of the guns on the wall closest to it.<br>"Okay Vincent riddle me this, what the fuck do they mean when they say that you were ripped apart by death claws?" she demanded glaring at him.  
>"Hmm, oh that long story short, the enclave wanted to throw dirt in my eye, by unleashing a pack of wild claws on Megaton, I drew them away and barely lived to not tell the tale" he said nonchalantly going back to wiping his off his hands.<br>"And it never crossed you're mind that I may want to know about that?" she questioned, and that surprised him.  
>"Umm sorry but how in any way shape or form affect you?" he snorted she truly didn't understand the concept of it's none of your business, so back off he thought as he started putting spanners away.<br>"It affects me okay, the things you've done affect everyone, or didn't you learn that last time" she snarled, his eye twitched once, before he hurled the tool across the room, sailing over her shoulder.  
>"DAMN IT WOMAN, I TOLD YOU ALL I DID THAT FOR YOUR OWN GOOD EVEN IF YOU COULDEN'T" he bellowed, clenching and unclenching his fists, before he wiped his hand over his face.<br>"I need a drink" he growled as he stormed, across the walk ways and over to the saloon.  
>He threw the door open and spotted the nearest bottle of whiskey, which was being held by Jericho, who was about to lift the drink to his filthy lips to prevent this sin from occurring, he grabbed the back of the ex-raiders head and slammed it down on the bar, before taking the bottle and taking a large gulp of the burning liquid, when he looked up and saw something that left him speechless, the woman that stood upon, the stairs, a tall woman with dark red hair, and a soft but hardened face a face that he had last seen retreating into the desert, behind him.<br>" Ava…..I need another bottle"

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><p>Yes my readers west meets east, the Wanderer and the Courier, so please read rate and review it gives me fuzzy feeling's and helps me do things like upload chapters within weeks of each other though I admit I had fun writing this one.<p>

P.S for anyone who didn't notice the pass code for Wadsworth try using the phonetic alphabet and look at it again


	7. East meets west

Tormented steel chp 7  
><strong>DISCLAMER: "SIGH" THERE IS NO OWNING OF FALLOUT HERE THAT GOES RIGHT TO BATHESDA<strong>_  
>Content warning: under 18 leave now please, or stay quiet about it.<em>_  
>Authors note: Hello once more unto the breach and let us see what trouble lurks beyond the horizon.<br>_

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><p>"Hello lover, bout time you got here" Ava purred from her perch on top of the stairway, not even a minute had passed and Vincent was sure that she was deliberately attempting to provoke him.<p>

"Why are you here Ava?" he asked he knew that he was being less than courteous, but at the moment he didn't feel like being nice and polite.  
>"Did I catch you at a bad time, you know I could make it all better" she offered, he just took another long gulp of whiskey.<br>"Stop being a minx and answer the question" he groaned feeling less and less like fighting.  
>"You know that I can't resist, and I would be happy to tell you everything, as well as some other things but I think the owner wants a word" she cooed pointing over to behind the bar, Vincent turned his head and saw Gob fuming at the sight of Jericho sprawled on the ground unconscious with blood pouring from his nose but moaning softly, apparently he hadn't slammed his head down hard enough.<br>"FUCKING HELL, I tell everyone who comes in here if you got a beef with someone take them outside first, I don't give a rats ass if you're new here, well what have you got to say for your sorry ass before I throw it out" he yelled, and while he had completely the wrong idea Vincent, was surprised when he last saw Gob, the ghoul had been a spineless sack of flesh, it seems that a lot can happen in two years.  
>"Stow it Gob, I'll pay for the bloody whiskey but the old fart was in my way" Vincent shot back, he may like Gob but he was in a really shity mood, and he wanted to shoot something.<br>"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE COMING INTO MY BAR AND TALKING SMAK TO ME BUTT SAUCE" Gob roared, pulling a combat shotgun, from behind the bar, well well he grew some balls while I was away, Vincent thought briefly, but he was about to get them busted if he kept acting like this.  
>"Oi piss for brains I'm the one who made sure you got this dive in the first place" Vincent shouted back, taking another long drink, it took the ghoul a few moments to put the dots together but when he did Gob dropped the gun like It was burning hot and just stood then gapping.<br>"Bull Vincent died; if you're him tell me something only he would know?" Gob probed, he was getting tired of this whole but you're dead crap though he only had himself to blame.  
>"The third time I came here I threw a shot glass into Moriartys squidgy face, and then I bought you a set of brass knuckles and Nova a few doses of Fixer" Vincent said it had been a bad day back then and the Irish man had gotten on his nerves, when he made an offhand comment about Moira, which Vincent was less than pleased about, hearing this Gob turned pale, well as pale as a corpse could get.<br>"OH SHIT, Vincent please don't kill me, I..i" he just began babbling, nonsense, which made Vincent rethink his thoughts about the ghoul getting a spine.  
>"If I wanted you dead you would be" he sighed, the only thing that he wanted to deal with was getting drunk and maybe later why the courier had left her dust bowl of a city.<br>"Thank you thank you hey anything you want on the house okay anything" Gob blabbered wavering his shaking hands over the over the room, at that point Vincent ignored him completely, and refocused on Ava who had been patiently leaning over the railing her head lightly resting on her hands.  
>"Where's the scribe, she follows you around like a love sick puppy" he questioned, and if you replaced puppy with nymphomaniac, that loved to crack heads like macadamia nuts it was a perfect analogy for Veronica.<br>"Upstairs sleeping off our wild romp, we got bored of waiting for you" she teased, that woman truly never gave up did she and being blunt as a lead pipe to the skull wasn't helping matters.  
>"Of course, that's what you two always do" he sighed, stupid question shameless answer.<br>"It wasn't always like that it used to be we three" she said giving him a devilish smile he needed to change topic.  
>"Which brings me back to my original question, why are you here?" he asked getting a straight answer from her was like pulling teeth.<br>"Aww fine be boring, you know I think it's better we talk behind locked doors mainly the one's on your house" she said her eyes flicking to the faces of all of the saloons patrons which were all fixed on them.  
>"I think you're right come on, wake fistie and let's get a move on" he sighed partly out of mental fatigue and partly because of his unintentional pun, as Ava bolted up the stairs in a state of excitement, he wasn't sure who would win Sarah or Ava, because if the red head didn't calm down, he foresaw a cat fight in his near future.<p>

As she rammed open the door to their room Ava went over to the bed gipped the raggedy sheets in her hands, and ripped them off which exposed Veronicas naked body to a blast of cold air which woke her up, quick smart, to the face of Ava who was grinning like a fool, as she began tossing her cloths to her.  
>"He's here?" she asked since Frost was one of the only things besides her and old world tech that could make Ava this fired up.<br>"Yep, came into the bar smashed some guys head against it, took his whiskey, and saw me, we chatted and now we are going to his house can you believe it I wonder what it looks like?" she jabbered and running out of things to toss to her Ava, grabbed her cherished rifle and waited at the door torn between admiring Veronica dressing, and wanting to go and see Vincent's home.  
>"That sounds just like our wanderer" muttered Veronica, only he would beat a man into submission to get at a bottle of whiskey, she thought as she finished dressing.<p>

The moment that she was dressed Ava snatched Veronicas hand, shoved her pack over her arm and barrelled down the stairs, while in the back of her mind she knew that she was acting a bit over excitedly, Ava had been bored to death waiting in the sleazy excuse for a saloon, and while wild sex was always fun and had kept her occupied the thought of seeing tall dark and murderous, had set her bouncing off the walls with glee, he had taken so long to get here, in her terms a few days felt like a few years.  
>"Okay ready let's go" she said when they stopped beside Vincent, he just flicked his eyes from her to Veronica and back, before taking another drink.<br>"This way Skippy" he said heading out the door Ava happily bounded up behind him, feeling even happier than the day she had hunted down Benny, cut him into little bite sized pieces and mailed what was left to the White glove society.

He was at an all-time low, he had gone to the saloon to try in vain to drink himself, into oblivion and to get away from Sarah before he tore one of her limbs off and tried beat some sense into her with it.  
>Not to go there and find Ava, of all people waiting for him, and then to bring her back home with him, the same home that Sarah was in, and if Ava couldn't keep her hormones under control and her trap shut, he would be in the very awkward position, of having to tell the sentinel, why the red head was talking quite casually about how good he was in the sack, and if Sarah had tested the goods, and undoubtedly suggesting an orgy somewhere along the line and while he and Sarah, had slept together, Vincent knew that, if that topic came up now the two would never work together, after a time it would be fine but at the moment Sarah was in too delicate a state, a tipping point which Ava could unwittingly push her over, and while he had some hesitance on the matter Ava would be a valuable ally against the NCR, so he grimly walked over to his house and opened the door.<p>

Sarah was in a state of shock Vincent had just walked out throwing the most damning of convictions unto her, saying that he had left in order to protect her from forces that both she and the capital were defenceless against, but what had forced tears to run down her face was that she deserved his anger, the brotherhood deserved his rage, at the time it had seemed like they were bringing him to justice that they were doing the right thing, but none of them ever had considered why he left they had all just assumed that he had betrayed them on a whim.  
>It had never crossed their minds that he had been elsewhere defending the very ones who had condemned him, only now did she see the pain he had endured, but she wanted him to suffer like she had, two years she had held it together by sheer will to find him and to demand why, how he could leave her, and now when she had the answer, she only wanted to scream in his face he could have left a letter or a note or anything to show that he had not simply grown bored and left.<br>But Vincent's outburst had drained her of the will to go on all she wanted to do now was sleep and never wake again, no more super mutants, no more NCR, and to see the faces of her brothers her sisters her father, and while only one was blood they were all family.  
>"Robot, what's your name?" she asked wiping tears from her eyes.<br>"Wadsworth Madam, how may I assist you?" it replied, its voice deeper than other mister gusty units but that was unimportant at the moment.  
>"Is there a bed I can use somewhere?" she asked.<br>"Yes right this way madam" it said floating up the stairs and stopping at a door on the right, then opening the door for her.  
>Sarah was pleasantly surprised to see a bed with a relatively clean mattress and warm blanket, she didn't even bother removing her clothes, she sank into the springy bed and wrapped herself tightly into the brown quilt and chocked back the sobs that clawed their way from her mouth.<p>

Unlocking the door, Vincent was mentally preparing, for Sarah to pounce upon him and begin screaming to him about how there were two young females inside one of which was flirting to him without any shame or regard for common decency, while the other just stood back and sized her up but instead he was met with silence, confused for a moment he paused and listened and he heard it, snoring from upstairs and he grinned to himself, it seemed that he had the time to both look over his arm and to talk to Ava.  
>"Here we are but I ask you be quiet for the sake of my recent house guest, but besides that make you're selves at home" he said, as he moved over to his work bench and lifted up his sleeve, before beginning the process, of unwrapping his arm, when the metal was uncovered, he looked over it but it seemed that the casing was fine so he took a few moments to uncover the internal workings and saw the damage that it had sustained when he had ripped off the steel grate back at the Citadel, the only reason he could deduce for the damage was that he had neglected any repairs for a long time and he had never done anything to defend it against internal decupling and while it may not be too serious at the moment but if he didn't replace the damaged couplings he ran the risk of more internal components braking.<br>Vincent began his work by removing a part the internal shock casing, which gave him more room to work with the inner workings of his arm, frowning he reached for a pair of tweezers and he slowly tried to remove a cracked servo, when he twitched and the entire arm jerked violently, he hissed and released the tool.  
>"Do you want some help with that?" asked a voice behind him, Vincent turned around, and saw Ava looking over his shoulder, he sighed and moved aside to give her a better view of his attempt at repairs, she gave it a sweep over and shot him a look of disappointment.<br>"How many times did I tell you when you're doing this kind of repair work remove the primary power source" she grumbled as moved her hand to his chest and pressed on a small almost invisible circle, near his shoulder, after a moment it pulsed slightly and popped out a fraction, she then rotated it clockwise, and pulled it out all the way and as the glowing blue rod was removed he suddenly felt sluggish, his arm still moved with the same power but the secondary micro fusion cells couldn't hack it like the alien tech did, the power rods could sustain triple their current power output they could for years, whereas the fusion cells could only work for a few weeks at that sort of strength.  
>"You know I still want to know where you found these marvellous, things" remarked Ava turning the glowing blue rod in her fingers.<br>"A place" he replied.  
>"And were, was that?" she asked again enjoying the cryptic banter<br>"Where it was" he said watching the grin which spread on Avas face.  
>"You know I will find out sooner or later" she said before, she picked up the tweezers and slowly removed the piece before replacing it with a new part she then began to scour over the rest of his arm replacing parts as she went.<br>"So what did you do to it this time" she asked while she shined a bit of light on where she was working.  
>"I ripped off a reinforced steel grate" he replied Ava pursed her lips but stayed silent.<br>As she was finishing up he reminisced about all the times that he had both cursed and thanked this replacement, while it allowed him to do things that would give a super mutant pause he missed the feel of dirt in his hands he missed the way that he could let it glide through a woman's hair and feel every strand, sure the arm still had impulses which meant he could still feel but it was never the same, but he pressed on he had to no matter what he had to continue it was in his nature.  
>"Done, you won't be having any trouble as long as you don't decide to get into an arm wrestling match with a behemoth" she said giving him a sly grin as she replaced the last of the armour over the appendage.<br>"You know I'd blow it up before it won" he replied as he reinserted the glowing rod, feeling a familiar surge of power he flexed his fingers no longer feeling the tick that he had before, he had to admit she may be a pain at times but Ava, made up for it an opinion which was tarnished when she pulled back and punched him in the guts, with just enough force to stumble back a few steps.  
>"The hell was that for!?" he snapped glaring at her.<br>"For damaging my master stroke of bio mechanical engineering and not saying **sorry!**" she shot back with a scowl.  
>"How was I supposed to know what would happen but if it means so much I apologize" he said crossing his arms.<br>"Good" she said beaming and giving him a hug.  
>"Umm so what do you think of my humble abode?" he asked to take his mind off of how close she was to him.<br>"I like it, very… weapon friendly, definitely a place that you would call home" she said looking over the walls obviously talking about the weaponry.  
>"Yes well I aim to please, it took me a while to gather it all" he remarked, as she looked over his more exotic weaponry, for a few moments she trailed her fingers over the tesla cannon.<br>"Now what's the story behind this lovely item" she asked eyeing the weapon like it was a piece of candy.  
>"That is a gun that holds a place in my heart, it helped me kill a lot of enclave troops on more than one occasion" he replied that weapon had given him a very nasty reputation among the old world army.<br>"Oh what powers it?" she asked looking over to where the ammo packs were placed.  
>"Electron charge packs, ECP's for short" he said thinking of how bloody difficult it was to find those little red packs.<br>"Can I have it please?" she begged turning and giving him her best pout.  
>"Are you going to try and pull it apart to see how it ticks?" he asked raising an eyebrow in her direction.<br>"NO, well maybe, na… yes" she mumbled, looking down at her feet.  
>"Fine" he said with a sigh "I have others" at his words Avas face lit up and he barely had time to react when she rushed him gave him a hug and left just as quickly wordlessly picking up the weapon and placed it on the work bench, she would be content for a while which gave him time to talk to her stoic companion.<p>

Veronica was unsure just what she had expected to see when she entered the wanderer's home, but guns on every available surface was not it, sure he had a taste for firearms but this seemed a bit eccentric though his set of power fists were very enticing, some looked like regular versions others looked like Vincent had modified them heavily, some with spikes others with what looked like explosive or shock pads, but as she was observing one of the devices, she heard a floor board creek behind her, without thinking and acting on instinct she spun around and threw out her hydraulically powered fist, towards the person behind her, who raised his arm up to block, and when they collided Veronica's entire arm shook from the force of the impact but his only budged slightly.  
>"You know I never thought that coating this in a tungsten carbide and titanium alloy would ever need to be tested against a power fist" Vincent mused looking at where she had hit.<br>"Huh only a slight dint now please remember that you're in my house not the wastes, and also I'd suggest that you don't hit me again you'll hurt your arm more" he said, Veronica just stared in shock, he'd upgraded since the last time she'd seen him, and rubbed her arm.  
>"You're still an ass aren't you?" She snapped, when he was in the Mohave at first she had wanted to snap his neck, but Ava had found him interesting on account of his numerous mutations, but when he lost his arm Ava used everything at her disposal to heal him after that every second that she spent with him the more attached she grew to him, eventually she became infatuated with him, the only problem was that she was also in love with her and that and when she found out all Victoria wanted to do was kill him slowly and painfully, she almost managed to but in the end just like cancer he grew on her and she accepted him, but now that she was near him again she wondered if that had been a poor choice.<br>"No it's just that you have an armoured fist not an entire arm" he replied as she nursed her arm.  
>"You have anything to drink?" she asked pulling herself up and refusing to give him any more amusement.<br>"The fridge is over there under the stairs…and don't ingest **anything** from the top part of the freezer" he warned Veronica was almost tempted to take something just to spite him but then she recalled that Vincent had a very unique and potentially deadly palate.  
>"Do you have anything other than whiskey?" she asked as she walked over to the small kitchen area.<br>"Purified water, Nuka, beer" he replied as he began spinning a yoyo in his hand, while she opened the fridge door and was hit by a blast of cold air, for a few moments she just stood there and basked in the unfamiliar chill.  
>"How the hell did you get a working fridge?" she questioned, while keeping in the cold air.<br>"What…oh I got tired of having to ask Walter for dry ice from the cooling plant which cost an arm and a leg, so I rigged together a fusion cell generator, which I hooked up to the ice box there" he explained " And don't waste the cold air" he added as an afterthought.  
>Veronica just grabbed a Nuka cola and popped the cap before drinking down a gulp of the fuzzy liquid, but not before noticing the vacuum packed red meat and flasks on the top shelf, but thought it was better to not ask as to what the unstable wanderer may call lunch.<p>

While Veronica contented herself to a cool drink Ava was taking extreme care to keep up the appearance that she was pulling apart the newly found energy weapon but in truth she was just waiting for Vincent to do something which would give her the time she needed to sneak upstairs to scope out this "house guest" and her chance came when he began reading and editing a copy of the DC journal of internal medicine, a strange but time consuming hobby of his, unwilling to pass up the opportunity, she edged her way to the far side of the workbench and waited a few minutes until Vincent, was fully engaged in his book she slowly moved up the stairs keeping her eyes on Vincent and Veronica, before slinking up to what looked like the guest room, Ava carefully checked the doors hinges and concluded that they were oiled enough for her to open it without much noise, as she twisted the knob she pushed the door in a fraction.  
>Asleep on a bed in the back of the room was a very good looking woman with dirty blond hair tied back in a ponytail, Ava narrowed her eyes, was Vincent sleeping with her, who was she, and was she available? Ava wondered to herself as she took the woman in, athletic build toned, but it was the scars that set Ava off some looked like shrapnel wounds others bullet which while not uncommon in the wasteland the holo tags were, she was a member of the brotherhood, so why was she here?<br>She took in the newcomers form for a few more seconds finding that she had found more questions than answers, but that could wait until this newcomer was awake.  
>She closed the door and slowly turned to make her way down the stairs when she bumped into something, a pair of leg's legs which were wearing a set of navy blue leather pants.<br>She tilted her head upwards to meet Vincents piercing glare, instantly wishing she hadn't he was looking calm and that often translated into murderous.  
>"I thought that I told you not to disturb my gest"<p>

Vincent was just finishing a chapter on bullet wounds after extensive editing; he finished writing in the ways that he had treated such wounds and placed it on top of four other identical books, which he had gotten to in earlier times, it seemed that he was adding more and more pages with each book, it was an addictive habit of his to find pre-war books like this and to re write them or in some rare cases to learn from them, in that way he was almost as bad as Ava was with old world tech, though he was thankful for her habit after all it saved his life.  
>As he was contemplating his luck with Ava being a massive bio mechanical geek his left hand started shaking, slowly it travelled up his arm growing more intense with each moment, damnit he thought it would take longer for it to affect him, he went to the fridge concealing the shaking from Veronica by hiding the arm under his coat not that he really needed to since she was too wrapped up in trying out his power fists, he opened the fridge and grasped the nickel plated flask unscrewing it before taking a few gulps of the liquid after which the trembling stopped, he'd have to start carrying it with him again, damn it all to hell and back, it seems that no one can escape their nature.<br>Vincent shook off the feeling of the flasks contents hitting his stomach he needed to get his mind off it.  
>Shaking his head he walked over to his tool bench and pulled out "the knee capper" from his leg holster and placed it on the table the general design of the gun was all well and good but it had a history of miss fires in one of the barrels and jams in the very same barrel and for some reason he couldn't find the source of the problem so he had simply removed it form the gun entirely and with some sawing and a few hours of tinkering he had made it look relatively symmetrical, this of course was years ago when he had first gotten the weapon nowadays he could see the problem the firing pin had been askew but it seemed that no matter how hard he tried he could never reconnect the barrels.<br>He was examining the engravings on the side of the gun when he got the feeling that something was missing.  
>AVA, the Electrical cannon was sitting on the bench and she wasn't tinkering with it, that sly minx he thought to himself she had wanted an excuse to slip away and there was only one thing that would be of interest to her more than old world tech, competition.<br>The shot gun abandoned Vincent raced up the stairs to see Ava closing the door to the guest bedroom before bumping into his legs.  
>"I thought that I told you not to disturb my guest" he growled glaring down at her guilt and shock passed over her face.<br>"I thought you were talking to Veronica" she said meekly, in response he narrowed his eyes more and scowled.  
>"Have I ever told you how much I loathe liars?"<br>"Yes" she replied standing up.  
>"Then why are you lying to me and why did you ignore what I said" he snarled shoving her up against the wall and lifting her by the scruff of her jacket.<br>"Curiosity"  
>"Don't you know curiosity killed the Ava" he growled glaring at her becoming more irritated with every passing moment the look in her eyes calm confidence, mixed with defiance but none of that sweet fear that he wanted, snarling her let her go and turned around trying to calm down when he heard a creek behind him.<br>"Vincent, who's that?"

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><p><em>Well folks i'm back and I'm sorry that you have all had to wait for so long for this but not to worry I've picked my pen back up so to speak, and not to worry I plan to write more soon and remember reviews faves and follows are always appreciated<br>_


	8. Nostalgia

Tormented steel 8  
><strong>DISCLAMER: Bethesda owns fallout 3 I just like adding bits.<br>**_**Content warning: those under 18 or the legal age of consent in your resident country should not be reading this and so and so forth.  
><strong>__Authors note: a big shout out to all of my readers truly without you folk and your support this little dream of mine would have never come to life so I thank you all but I do apologise for taking so long to update but there has been a recent passing in my family I think you for your patience . _

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><p>"Vincent, who's this?" Sarah asked groggily running her hands through the mess that was her hair.<br>"Old friend" he replied, giving Ava the evil eye if she opened her mouth and contradicted him he would sow it shut.  
>"Why is she here" Sarah yawned stretching her arms.<br>"She has something she wants to tell me but from behind closed doors, isn't that right?"  
>"Yes but Vincent didn't want to wake you so we decided to wait" she said calmly, her eyes darting over to Vincent before moving back to Sarah.<br>"Okay I'll be down in a moment I just need to get dressed…. Do you have some clothes I can use?"  
>"In the closet at the back of the room" he said before walking down stairs Ava close behind.<p>

Sarah opened the closet to find a set of green combat armor with a four leaf clover over the right side of the breast plate hanging neatly waiting for her, slipping out of her current clothes, which were nothing more than some Brahmin skin rags, she felt a bit more comfortable in something that would offer some protection even if she would have given an arm for a set of power armor.  
>When she was dressed Sarah walked down the stairs to see Vincent, and the woman from earlier, having a hushed convocation, which abruptly ended when he saw her coming down the stairs.<br>Sarah also spotted another woman lulling back a Nuka cola, and while that was not all that interesting what did get her attention was that she was wearing what looked like scribes robes.  
>"Okay so who are you're new friend's?" she asked placing her hands on her hips.<br>"This is Ava" he said motioning to the red head in the sleeveless duster coat.  
>"And that is Veronica" he said pointing to the woman in the robes who lifted her bottle in a vague salute.<br>"Alright and what are they doing here?" she questioned raising an eyebrow.  
>"Well I'm not sure but I have a rough idea of what it may be but only Ava can answer that question" he murmured turning to face Ava.<br>Ava sucked on her lip for a moment before answering.  
>"Okay long story short, when we in New Vegas got wind that the NCR were going to try and cross the divide after what happened to the hub I didn't worry too much you should know why, that place is a death sentence, but when the Legion caught wind that they had succeeded in the crossing, they went ape shit, after all where the NCR goes the Legion follows" she explained leaning the door placing a tooth pick in her mouth.<br>"But I found out first and got here second, if they use the same path we did then this place is going to be hit by a certified shit storm" she finished with grim eyes peering out from beneath her hat.  
>"How the bloody hell did they find a way over hell I had a hard time getting over alone but to get an army over, that's insane" Vincent chimed in looking troubled.<br>"What can I say they were desperate losing a city does that, as for how they got through, I don't know I'd pin most of it on luck, but that's not the point the Legion will be here soon so what are you going to do about that?" Ava asked crossing her arms.  
>"I'm going to walk out that door talk to the sheriff, think come back make a decision which I will then act out" Vincent said as he moved to the door which Ava moved out of the way and let him leave.<br>"Okay who the fuck are the LEGION?" Sarah demanded looking at the red head Ava.  
>"Hmm the Legion they are a bunch of psychotic male supremacists in football gear, that want to either enslave, kill or rape every other living human being" Ava said with a wink.<br>"You know men that are sinfully good in bed if you can drag them away from each other, but it tends to be easier to shoot them" hearing this Veronica playfully threw her bottle of nuka cola at Ava.  
>"Vulpes wasn't that good and you know it" she said as Ava caught the flying beverage and took a swig.<br>"Maybe but you made up for it" she teased, Sarah just sat there in stunned silence.

As he excited his house hold Vincent, wondered how long it would be until Ava shocked Sarah into silence, regardless he swivelled his head until he saw Lucas Simms, up near the gate, walking over he cleared his throat to catch the ex-regulator turned mayor and sheriff's attention .  
>"Hmm yes what do you need?" he asked as he turned around before he saw Vincents face.<br>"Thought you died?" he asked rising an eye brow.  
>"No heard that can be bad for you so I try to avoid it" he said with a grin at which the sheriff's mask of nonchalance broke and he began laughing whole heartedly.<br>"Knowing you it would only piss you off what ya need wanderer?" Simms asked a smile curling his face, even as Vincent supressed a snarl he hated that title Three dog had branded him with that damn name only some officers in the brother hood, Ava and Veronica, knew his real name no one bothered to ask his name the moment they saw the navy blue coast and hood he wasn't Vincent frost he was the lone wanderer an almost childish concept perhaps, but it was what he is now and he had to accept that.  
>"A smart and level headed individual to talk to" placing a hand on the mayors shoulder.<br>"It's good to see you Lucas" he said taking his hand away.  
>"Something's coming, something big and you guys are in the line of fire, you need to get the towns folk out of here" Vincent said keeping his voice low so that no one over heard them.<br>"Then I'll need a few days to prepare and get the civvies moving we'll need supplies, guards" Simms sighed looking deep in thought.  
>"Not possible if my source is right we have two, maybe three days at best"<br>"I'll need a hell of a lot more time than that to get these people out of here and unless you have a better plan" Lucas said exasperated at his words Vincent had a brain wave.  
>"Yes in fact I do but I'm not sure it'll work so start on getting people ready to get out of here" he said before running back to his house.<p>

"Bullshit no one can survive that" Sarah said her eyes narrow slits.  
>"It's true I have the scars to prove it" she retorted parting her hair to show a pair of circular scars in the upper right corner of her forehead.<br>"Being shot in the head not a fun experience and I don't want to try it again" she said letting her red hair fall back into place.  
>"So what's with your friend over there?" Sarah asked flicking her gaze over to the robed woman.<br>"Veronica she's my part time traveling companion and full time lover" she said "Isn't that right sweet cheeks" she called over to the other woman who was currently flicking through a magazine.  
>"Isn't what right?" she called back.<br>"That your sweet ass is mine" she said with an evil grin.  
>"True but the same applies to you darling" Veronica replied flipping over a few pages.<br>"So what was Vincent to you?" Sarah interrupted before the two women got too carried away.  
>"Hmm oh he was well I would say he travelled with me as well but it wasn't quite like that it was more like he pulled me along for the ride" she shrugged as she pulled out a small book from her jacket and started writing in it before she stopped abruptly to look at the door just as Vincent burst in.<br>"I'm going to be gone for a few hours hold down the fort while I'm away" he said taking something form the freezer before departing just as fast as he had arrived.  
>"I'm starting to get an urge to break his legs so that he will stop for a moment and BLOODY explain things" Sarah shouted at the door scowling.<br>"He already did sweetie" Ava chuckled "Before he left he said what he was going to do, no need to get narky because he didn't pay enough attention to you" she said smirking behind her little book.  
>Sarahs only response was to cross her arms and scowl.<p>

He trudged out of Megatons gates attempting to calm the storm of emotions and thoughts that were passing though him.  
>In five years he'd never looked back, never tried to go back even after he had found his father, vault 101 his childhood spent in an underground box a supposedly ideal world bellow the world.<br>Full of men and women to cowardly to crack open the seal and open the door save for a few like his father and him and what did this achieve a small boy who had to deal with half hidden looks of disdain and disgust, so not all that different from how things currently were, but no matter all he had to do was go in knock on the door be denied entry and go back to Simms, he wouldn't take the news well but Lucas would get over it and stop pussy footing about and get under way about evacuation.

As Vincent walked up the hill to that small wire door his pip boy chirped softly, lifting the device the screen announced that it had picked up a new radio signal, a signal titled.  
>Vault 101 emergency frequency he carefully turned on his radio to hear the transmission.<br>"_This is an automated distress message from Vault-tec Vault 101, message begins, "It's been a long time since you and your father left and up until recently it was fine but when we started getting more insistent on contact with the outside world he flipped in a bad way please if you can hear this I'm begging you help us I changed the code on the door to my name if you still care enough to help me you should remember it"_ Amatas voice said over the speakers.  
>"I'm going to KILL THAT SON OF A BITCH!" he snarled sprinting up the rest of the hill and smashing though the wire mesh door, looking at the large round door of vault 101, he punched Amatas name into the key pad at the side of the door waiting as it lurched inwards the steel screeching as it opened.<br>A man in vault security armour rushed over his gun drawn It took him a moment to place the face it was Officer Armstrong one of the last men to see him before he exited the vault.  
>He opened his mouth to shout something but never got that far since, the man emptied an entire clip in his direction one of which grazed his side barely a flesh wound, but that was still enough to piss him off, since talking was clearly out of the question he popped out from behind the railing he had taken cover behind and put a round through the man's plastic riot helmet and into his brain cavity.<br>"Stupid fool" he muttered, swiping his ammo and proceeding down the corridor.  
>As Vincent entered the atrium he saw Butch almost get his ass shot of by one of the guards the gun in his hand shaking so violently it was a wounder he hadn't shot his own foot off, turning he saw Vincent's fist smashing into his helmet in and into his face the limp body sprawled out on the floor, Vincent checked to see if the man was still breathing as it turned out he was when Butch stuck his head out from around the corner.<br>"YEAH that's what you get for messing with a tunnel snake" he shouted meekly when his eyes set on Vincent.  
>"OH SHIT, who the fuck are you?" he squealed cowering behind his wall again.<br>"What don't remember me butch let me jog your memory five years ago someone saved mommy from rad roaches who was that?" he questioned darkly his cold gaze burrowing into the man.  
>"Vincent holy shit you're alive!?" he exclaimed his eyes going as wide as diner plates.<br>"Yes now run along I have killing to do" he snarled walking away to the stairs which lead to the upper level.  
>As he approached the Overseers office another guard rushed him baton raised, Vincent just wrenched the weapon from his hands and tossed him over the rail to the lower level he have some broken bones but he would live maybe.<br>The door to the overseer's office was locked down, he quickly typed the old key code into the key pad which, bleeped at him angrily announcing he had entered the wrong code as expected after all why would the old basted make things easy for him?  
>Thinking for a moment he quickly scanned it with his pipboy the metal was thin steel with an aluminium coating enough to keep regular people out but not him not now.<br>First he took out a titanium brace of his own design and slipped It over his fist it may not be much but he didn't want to damage his arm again.  
>He pulled back his arm and slammed it into the door with all his might, the door shuddered the force of the impact leaving a small dent in the steel, frowning maybe it was a little thicker than anticipated, Vincent twisted his arms power core rotating it anti clockwise ramping up the rods power output a low humming emanating from the device once again he pulled back his hand and smashed his fist into the same spot this time the whole thing groaned frowning he snarled at the door "third times the charm" he heaved his hand back once more and ploughed it into the door, which gave way with a thunderous scream.<p>

He stormed into the room spotting the overseer in the far corner cowering in a ball, age hadn't been kind to him he was balding his beard was barely what could be called wispy his wrinkles had wrinkles his face was pale and sickly, and his eyes clouded.  
>Vincent calmly strode over and picked him up by the scruff of the neck.<br>"What did I tell you when I left?" he growled shaking the old man when he refused to answer.  
>"I said that if you so much as harmed one hair on Amatas head I would kill you pure and simple, sure I've been away for a while but I'm back and guess what, I'm going to enjoy this" he whispered as he tossed the overseer to the other side of the room like a sack of wheat, and drew his knife and twirled the blade as he walked over to the whimpering piece of meat that had doubled up into a ball.<br>Now it was a question as to how much time did he want to waste on the pathetic little man, dragging him up from the floor he decided that he didn't have the time to enjoy himself so he'd have too settle for something quick and messy, sighing he flipped the knife over to his left hand before he slashed the knife left to right across the old man's throat cutting both Carotid arteries and the jugular ending his life as his blood poured over the floor taking a moment to savour the look in his eyes as his body futilely attempted to keep him alive.  
>With that small pleasantry over with, he scanned the room for some rope or similar object, finding none he grabbed a spool of wire from one of his back pouches and tied it neatly around the overseers neck, he then grabbed a piece of paper from the desk and wrote a short but appropriate message.<br>_Sic semper tyrannis,_ it seems that mister Brotch's Latin and history lessons were finally coming in handy, stapling the paper to the corpse's chest he hoisted the body over his shoulder walked out of the office and lowered it over the edge of the atriums second floor and tied the other end of the cord to the railing leaving the overseers body for all to see.  
>Walking down the steel corridors brought back feelings of nostalgia none of which he wanted to recall too much of his past was here all he wanted to do was to was wipe it clean but with what he was planning he could ill afford to do that regardless as he entered the lower levels it seemed things had changed a great deal since he last saw this place the barricades were a nice touch for one as were the two standing guard Mr Broach and Butch what an interesting pair, he thought as he passed his old teacher who stood ram rod stiff blinked with his mouth hanging ope and entered the residential area he did his best to move quickly.<p>

As Vincent walked into his old room he was surprised that it was just as he had left it on the day of his escape five years ago so many memories here, and things which he had left behind he dismissed his feelings and was about to take an item that he had forgotten so long ago when he heard the door open it could only be one person.  
>"Hello Amata it's been a while" he said without turning around.<br>"My god you heard my message?" she asked in disbelief.  
>"Correct your problem has been taken care of Miss Almodovar" he said flatly turning to her observing as her face momentarily contorted in horror seeing the vicious scars that marred his visage.<br>"You've changed" she said quietly.  
>"No shit but honestly I didn't come her for a reunion or your opinion, I need a favour and seeing as I've just saved your ass as well as the others you don't have grounds to say no" he snapped they may have been friends once even more then that at one point but he was different now as was she.<br>"Not the reaction I was hoping for, fine out with what do you want?" she asked scowling.  
>"The vault to provided sanctuary to a number of civilians from outside" he responded.<br>"Absolutely NOT, I will not compromise the…" she tried to finish but when those first words came out of her mouth he rushed her pining her against the wall.  
>"Okay I want to make something clear here I don't need you or the rest of the people here I need the vault, and making a few more corpses to move out isn't going to cause me any loss of sleep, you get my drift here girl" he snarled but from the look on her face she thought he was bluffing or at least hoping he was.<br>"You don't believe me do you okay I'll give you a demonstration, were pray tell is Butch or his mother as a matter of fact she'll do fine hell give me a name and you'll soon know just how serious I am" he said calmly looking into her eyes through the entire exchange.  
>"I understand please just go" she said defeated.<br>"I'll be gone in a moment" he said as he let her drop to the floor he didn't care much he had what he wanted.  
>Grabbing his father's framed quote from the mantle he threw the thing to the ground breaking the glass before he neatly picked up the paper and pulled out his lighter setting the page alight watching with a great deal of satisfaction as it shrivelled into a lump of ash on the floor.<br>"What the hell was that for it was your father's?" Amata cried out in shock.  
>He just looked at her blankly.<br>"Exactly and I hope the son of a bitch is watching every moment" he growled before leaving his old room and the new Overseer behind hopefully for good.

"So Sarah how did you first meet Vincent?" Ava asked helping herself to a bottle of scotch from the fridge.  
>"Under fire from a mutie raiding party, he swopped in and pulled us out of the fire" she replied recalling that fateful day from so very long ago.<br>"HA yeah that sounds just like Vin" Ava chuckled taking a swig from the bottle smiling to herself.  
>"Vin? He never lets anyone call him Vin" Sarah mumbled suddenly feeling oddly territorial over the matter trivial as it was.<br>Ava just shrugged in return, "I saved his life I think a nickname is a small trade-off" just as Sarah was preparing to counter the explanation the short sharp tolling of a bell cut through the town.  
>"The hell is that?!" Sarah wounded out loud already getting out of her seat.<br>"Fire perhaps?" Veronica put forward.  
>"When was the last time you saw a metal city catch fire V?" Ava interjected grabbing her Barrett M82 from where it had been resting beside her.<br>Running outside Ava heard the distinct shots of a lee Enfield rifle firing from the battlement where the gate guard was stationed well that was always a good thing she thought to herself as she rushed over and climbed up the ladder he had let down as she got to the top she saw the gate guard Stockholm she thought his name was, an older black man who had introduced himself as the Sherriff as well as the man that Vincent pile derived into the bar earlier all firing at something over the wall.  
>Taking the m82 from her back Ava pecked over the wall and felt dread stab through her a mass of rapidly closing silhouettes, raiders that was the moment when old habits kicked in she lowered her gun and pulled out the retraceable bipod from under the barrel and balanced it on the wall, and looked through her rifles scope the raiders were getting closer fast and there had to be at least fifty of them out there she thought after doing a brief head count at that moment Veronica stepped up beside her lover and pulled out a pair of binoculars before resting her hand on Ava's shoulder before she said.<br>"Target front of the pack red war paint, green Mohawk fire when ready" her voice cold and calm to Avas ears she quickly found the mark and adjusted for the wind and his speed before pulling the trigger, watching as his head disappeared into a fine mist, she ignored the recoil of the weapon and pulled back the bolt chambering another round waiting for Veronica to call another target those lessons with Boon were definitely paying off for Veronica as she gave the location of her next victim.  
>But this slow and patient approach wasn't going to cut it the raiders had made it to the rocks that littered Megatons outskirts, and were using them to great effect as cover even as Sarah joined the group armed with a laser rifle she had nicked from Vincents home, briefly she took in the sight and sank into a firing position sending angry red bolts of light into the raiders lines some hitting the rocks others burning into dirt encrusted flesh but there were still more out there and they were content to peek out from behind the rock for but a second and fire blind for a few moments before peeking out again, a tactic witch annoyed Ava to no end because by the time she got a bead on one of the buggers they had darted back into cover.<br>As she was scanning for a cocky little shit to poke for a second more than necessary she sported a glint to her far left, think that it may be an enemy sniper she trained her sights on where she saw the flash when it flashed twice in quick succession before waiting a moment to glint again frowning she looked more closely and waited it then flashed quickly three times before pausing and flashing again.  
>No way was that a sniper he'd have to be waving his rifle around like a mad man when a thought struck her Morse code, working out the words in her mind the flashes were saying .<br>"Vin" Vincent he was on the hill over there she realized waiting for the next part of the message.  
>"Shock and awe don't shoot me" short and to the point just like him, still what did he mean by shock and awe? She wondered not like the sound of it in the slightest.<p>

_author's note as stated earlier I'm sorry I've been dormant for so long but life can be like that still follow fave review and enjoy _


	9. Intermission

Intermission.  
>Okay sorry for taking so long to update folks I've been on holidays in more than one way and sadly I've come back and my muse has up and decided to look into another story for the moment.<br>In short I'm going to start on a new fic for a while but rest assured I've not abandoned tormented steel kay.


	10. Shock, awe and hunger

Tormented steel 9  
>DISCLAIMER: I don't own fallout.<br>A/N I'm not dead yay .

Walking out from the vault brought Vincent the utmost feeling of bliss over him as he stepped once more into the sun it felt good to be back in what he considered his true womb his real birth place this hill was were the Lone wanderer was first given to the world.  
>Still he didn't have time to dwell on old memories he mused as he walked to the hills peak to behold a sight that utterly obliterated his blissfulness and the good mood that had accompanied it.<br>His keen eyes first spotted the red beams being shot down from Megatons guard tower and if he concentrated he could hear the distant sounds of gunfire, pulling his rifle from his back Vincent looked through the scope and saw them, raiders.  
>This was just what he bloody well needed dealing with his past only to be slapped in the face by the present, still from what he could see the raiders were using the rocks outside of the town to great effect shielding them from the oncoming fire.<br>Thinking for a moment Vincent knew that Ava would be up there and with any luck she would see this detaching his scope from the rest of the gun he lined it up at the correct angle that it would catch the sun light and hopefully would go in the direction he wanted it to go in, he dredged up all the Morse code he knew and sent his message.  
>After sending his message Vincent used the rifle scope to do a rough head count, the raider's numbered in the low fifty's or high forty's great just great.<br>Slowly he moved down the hill and into the ruins of Springvale bellow skirting around the edges of the buildings and keeping to the shadows, until he had gotten to the Holy light monastery scanning the area around him quickly, he pulled away a grey tarp that he had previously disguised with dust and some rubble to reveal the trapdoor that lead into the basement.  
>He'd redecorated it on his last visit, getting rid of the crazy cultists and assorted ghouls and turned it into one of his many little safe houses, it was in a perfect location to since no one would go near the radiation traps.<br>Regardless he needed heavier ordinance since he hadn't gone into the vault armed to the teeth as he usually did a foolish move in hind sight.  
>But then of course everything seems idiotic in hindsight.<br>Looking over the weaponry he had stashed Vincent ignored the handguns and assault rifles, looking over the explosive's, a hand full of plasma and, pulse grenades some homemade Nuka's and a pile of Russian Rgd 5's well they may not be his first choice but they were effective none the less, taking a few of them and using them to turn the raiders into red smears was an extremely enticing idea.  
>But there was only one thing here that he had any interest in they were relatively small, sandy in colour with yellow stripes circling the middle.<br>White phosphorus as the old saying goes, when in doubt burn them out, Vincent took the canisters and placed them in his jacket and was on the verge of leaving when he looked at the rifle resting neatly on what was once the centre dais his Mosin Nagant m91 a little something that he'd found in the Anchorage armoury.  
>Best damn sniper rifle he'd ever used even better when he'd added a suppressor to it, perhaps it would be best if he left the backwater rifle here and took up a more suitable weapon he needed something bigger than 10 milometer bullets anyway, stripping himself of the backwater and all his ten mil bullets he took up the Mosin and packed away as many 762 rounds as he could easily carry, before leaving the basement and recovering the entrance.<p>

Moving into the perfect position behind the raider's lines was easy a simple combination of timing and practise and not even much of that was needed the raiders were far too high on stim's and adrenalin for them to worry about anything other than the people shooting at them.

For a moment he waited going over the possible outcomes of what he was about to do.  
>Best case scenario things went exactly as he planned and the raiders were burned, confused and ultimately easy pickings.<br>But as with most things in life outcomes came in pairs if the worst came to worst he drastically misread the wind and blast radius of the grenade and the spray drifted over Megatons defenders leaving them vulnerable.

But he still had a job to do and this was the best way to do it with such little time, with that thought he pulled the grenade pins and threw them over the middle of the raiders watching as they exploded with a loud boom easily lost in the sounds of battle, letting out a thick burning cloud which dispersed a bit and quickly rained down on the unsuspecting raiders it was slow at first they hardly noticed the white specks contacting with their skin but then they began to itch it was bearable at first but then it began to burn and blister by this point the raiders knew something was wrong but the howls of pain were evidence enough of that, it was time to finish them off.  
>Emerging from cover Vincent drew his sword in one hand and black hawk in the other, the first raider was screaming tearing at the his skin around his face apparently the spray had gotten in his eyes perfect, keeping low he moved behind the man, sliding his sword between the man's ribs he fell silenced forever more, circling around he saw the bulk of the raiders force they were all clustered together howling as they tore at their flesh, he could smell the blood in the air it was so very invigorating.<p>

Tossing a handful of frags into the middle of the group he watched as one of them halted her writhing and almost got to the second part of screaming "OH SHIT" before the grenades detonated tossing charred meat over the surrounding area what a delightful sight it was.

Abandoning all pretences of stealth Vincent pulled his revolver from its resting place and promptly blew the head off of the next raider that came into his sights, he began moving through their ranks quickly and efficiently slaughtering them it was no challenge especially since some of the raiders had their heads blown off their shoulders followed by the familiar crack of Ava's rifle and others falling to the dazzling red beams of laser light.  
>He was having such fun that Vincent didn't notice the man sneaking up behind him until he felt the hot sharp pain that came with being shot in the back, whirling around he saw the scum holding a shity little 32 revolver snarling he started towards the man with murder in his eyes, to his credit the raider kept firing until he ran out of bullets not that it mattered since all of the shots hit his chest plate.<br>As the raider tried to reload Vincent raised his blade and swept it along in a slash across the man midsection easily cutting through the leather straps that he called clothing and opening a gash right along his belly it was worth it just to watch as he screeched in pain dropping the gun and attempting to hold his intestines in.  
>It reparked a hunger in him watching as the blood flowed onto the ground, forcibly ripping his eyes from the scene he reached into his jacket fumbling for his flask as his left arm began to shake he unscrewed the lid and gulped down the liquid hungrily regardless of how foul it tasted even as the last few drops landed on his tongue before putting the bottle away again he could still taste bitter copper for the rest of the skirmish which was no grand battle even as he cut down the last of the raiders and wiped down his blade he felt hollow this was little more than a distraction to state his unease there was still much to do.<br>As he entered Megaton the was no cheering no fond voices chanting his name just silent shock for the last two years they had not been witness such an act of brutal slaughter and seeing his now crimson form moving down the street, leaving bloody boot prints in his wake, before entering his home told them all they needed to know the wanderer was back.

Ava watched as Vincent crept up behind the raider lines wondering just how he planned to flush them out when she saw him throw something into the air she waited a moment before the objects exploded into a cloud of white dust and dust that quickly fell onto the raiders.  
>White phosphorus now that was creative she thought as she drilled a bullet between the eyes of a screaming raider.<br>But watching Vincent fight was something else entirely he mixed sword and gun play into a fluid dance of death skewering one enemy and turning him into a human shield before shoving him off his blade and shooting someone else before cutting the next of his victims into bloody ribbons and he did this with such speed and precision that you couldn't be faulted for thinking it must have been rehearsed beforehand it seemed to be the polar opposite of how she fought her battles.  
>Ava was always careful slinking around in the shadows waiting for that one perfect shot before disappearing; Vincent was a blood thirsty whirlwind constantly moving and cutting down people like a scythe through wheat even as he walked through the gates into Megaton covered in blood she wondered if there was any force that could stop this man from getting what he wanted and that train of thought only made her all hot and gooey inside.<p>

Passing through his door Vincent glided over to his fridge opening the door and pulling out one of the smaller red packs ripping the plastic and tearing a chunk out of the meat with his teeth he felt a sliver of sanity return to him he needed to change clothes and talk to the sheriff but not like this not while he was in this state he was liable to kill someone at the drop of a pin swallowing down the rest of the flesh he took a deep breath and went upstairs for a clean set of clothes so that Wadsworth could wash what he was currently warring that was too close he almost lost it so much blood he couldn't go spiralling into madness yet there were still things to do, he thought as he dressed in a black trench coat black shirt black leather pants black combat boots and a pair of equally dark leather gloves before pulling a hood over his head and walking back out of his door and quickly over to the crater side supply.  
>He saw Moira in the corner of her shop at the workbench tinkering with something he cleared his throat to get her attention, looking up from her work Moira beamed and walked over to him.<br>"Whatcha need Vin?" she asked playfully even as he supressed the urge to frown he didn't like when people shortened his name and if it was anyone besides Moira or Ava and possibly Sarah they would be picking up what was left of their teeth about now.  
>"This is a private matter" he replied softly eyeing the guard she employed, catching his drift Moira ushered him upstairs and into her room.<br>"I've run out of blood as well as the substitute you gave me" he explained handing her his nickel flask.  
>"Oh that's not good not good in the slightest because I won't get another shipment of blood or the supplies I need for your supplement until next week" she murmured the worry evident in her voice.<br>"You could always try and get some blood packs from the clinic" she suggested.  
>"No I plan on leaving for a while and the amount of blood I'd have to ask for would raise questions" he responded and he couldn't take any of the meat with him since he would be traveling over long distances with company and he needed to eat the flesh raw, that alone would raise eyebrows much less why he wasn't sharing it.<br>"However I know some people who will have plenty of what I need, but I'll need something to help take the edge off until I can get there" he murmured producing something that looked like an epi pen from inside his coat though it was unique in that at the end it had an interchangeable glass vial.  
>Looking at the needle for a moment Moira nodded and rolled up her sleeve rubbing a patch of skin with his thumb for a moment he held her hand and slid the needle into her arm and watch as it took a few seconds for the vial started filling with her blood when it was full he touched a small button on the side and removed the vial before placing in another one and filling it before he removed the needle from her arm pressing down on the injection site with a piece of cloth.<br>"Thank you Moira" he said it still stunned him that she could embrace what he was, what he needed to do in order to survive, Ava was the only other person that knew about it and even that kept him wondering about how she could possible feel anything but disgust for him.

Sarah had seen the show that Vincent had put on with the raiders he was toying with them and it was terrifying.  
>The last time she'd seen him truly fight and kill that many people it had been clean controlled, emotionless but this it was brutal passionate, feral and he revealed in it perhaps he had always been like this but he had suppressed it before and it made her ask just what the hell happened to him in the last two years.<br>As Sarah moved down the ladder and towards Vincents home she saw him coming out from the crater side supply.  
>"Found a new colour have you?" she said smirking.<br>"For the moment" he replied opening his front door.  
>"I think it looks good on you" came a voice from behind her making Sarah jump spinning around to see Ava and Veronica behind her.<br>"I'll have my coat back the moment Wadsworth cleans the blood out of it" he said wincing as he turned to face her scowling he went inside and shrugged the coat off along with the shirt he was wearing under it exposing his back to the women.  
>Sarah wasn't sure what surprised her more that he was walking around with a still bleeding bullet wound in his back or the sheer number of scars that covered it.<br>Most of them looked like bullet wounds some burns and others were slash marks of varying sizes but the most impressive were the four giant claw marks that stretched from his left shoulder to his right hip along with the scaring around the base of his right arm.  
>"Ava do me a favour and dig that damn thing out I can't reach it" he growled before handing her a pair of tweezers.<br>Ava sighed and looked at the wound before carefully reaching into the wound and digging around for the bullet.  
>The only reaction Vincent gave was a slight tensing of his muscles which were very prominent even under all the scars after a few more seconds Ava retracted the tweezers carrying a mangled lump which she dropped into a petri dish that Veronica handed her.<br>"Thanks" he said before picking up a gauze bandage and wrapping it around his midsection.  
>"I have to say nice touch using phosphorus" Ava applauded with her massive rifle slung over her shoulder Sarah was surprised that she could carry the weapon so easily much less fire it without breaking her shoulder, still musing over this she caught Veronica glaring at Vincent as he turned to face them his chest was equally as scarred and as heavily muscled as his back, and it was the sort of body you could get from a life time of intensive work and battle and it made her reminisce about when it had been hers .<br>"It was a simple solution to an annoying problem, regardless pack your things we're heading out in three hours" he replied pulling his shirt and coat back over his body.  
>"Where are we going?" Sarah piped up wondering what plan he had come up with now.<br>"Raven rock I'll be hard pressed to set up a proper defence against the NCR, and the legion without help and I'm sure that the brotherhood will agree with me for the moment" he said glancing at her before walking over to one of the locker and producing a map of the wasteland which was littered with circles and dots with notes next to them he then fiddled with his pipboy which them displayed a similar map, after a few seconds he stopped and looked over at Ava and back down at his pip boy before abandoning the map and grabbing a holo disc from another part of the locker and inserting it into the wrist mounted computer.  
>Which bleeped after a few more seconds, he then ejected the disc and handed it to the red head.<br>"A full map of the wasteland" he said holding out to her, she took the disc and inserted it into her pip boy before widening her eyes at the sheer number of map markers on it.  
>"You've been around the block haven't you" she said jokingly.<br>"I've been to every corner of this place if that's what you mean" he replied tracing a line from what Sarah assumed was Megaton to raven rock, before frowning and taking another map which showed the sewer and metro tunnels.  
>"We'll head up through Arefu, before dropping by big town and pass through Minefield before getting to Raven rock" he muttered before his finger hit a dark red circle between Big town and minefield "we'll need to slip through slaver territory before we hit the line shit" he said scowling at the map.<br>"The line?" Sarah questioned quirking an eyebrow.  
>"The figurative line in the sand that most people don't go past, the point where the wastes belong to the really nasty things out there" he explained absently "I'm more worried about the slavers" he added as packed the maps away and grabbed a bottle of whisky from the fridge taking a long gulp of the amber liquid.<br>"Slaver, why should you be worried about them now you've mowed through them before?" Sarah asked perplexed.  
>"Because honey, Vin has been out of town for a while or did you forget that" Ava answered still looking over her new map.<br>"And that means they will have had plenty of time to recruit and arm up" Vincent muttered.  
>"Regardless make your arrangements" Vincent said cutting off further chance for the two women to annoy each other more.<p>

With that out of the way he went upstairs and unlocked the door on the far left revealing a room that as mostly empty except for a bed which was bolted to the floor and four pairs of manacles which were chained to four steel rods at the corners of the room.  
>It helped remind him to stay in control he had once used this place with Wandsworth's help to keep himself from hurting someone back when he couldn't fight his hunger anymore, hopefully he wouldn't need to ever again.<p>

**A/N: okay I know most of you are planning on finding me and stringing me up for making you all wait this long but I have a good reason, for the moment, study and the fact that I have just began work with some fellow writers, writing a Mass effect fic, Mass Exodus.  
>P.S: remember I feast on reviews.<strong> 


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